
Alson M. Doak 



























































COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



























HOW TO BE RICH 

















How to be Rich 


Short Studies in the 
Things that are Worth While 




ALSON M. DOAK 

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* 


CINCINNATI : JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
NEW YORK: EATON AND MAINS 


Copyright, 1910, 

By Jennings and Graham 





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Contents 

V' 


I. 

The Sources of Wealth, 

7 

II. 

Natural Wealth, 

i 7 

III. 

Co-operative Production, 

41 

IV. 

Silent Partners, 

65 

V. 

The Master Spirit, 

83 

VI. 

The Element of Personality, 

hi 

VII. 

Life’s Decisions, 

T 3 * 

VIII. 

Some Acquired Essentials of Success, 

149 

IX. 

Working with the Master Workman, 

167 

X. 

The Ultimate Result, 

191 
























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I. The Sources of Wealth 


“This world’s no blot for us, 

Nor blank; it means intensely, and means good 
To find its meaning is my meat and drink.” 

—Browning. 


“Give me health and a day and I will make 
the pomp of emperors ridiculous.”— Emerson. 


“The lily’s lips are pure and white 
without a touch of fire; 

The rose’s heart is warm and red 
and sweetened with desire. 

In earth’s broad fields of deathless bloom, 
the gladdest lives are those 
Whose thoughts are as the lily, 

and whose love is like the rose.” 


THE SOURCES OF WEALTH 


The strongest appeal of this age to many is 
on the commercial side. So richly has nature 
and the God of nature endowed us as a Nation 
that we are rich beyond the dreams of the ages. 
So lavishly have we used, and in many instances 
wasted, our resources that huge fortunes are a 
common thing, and the dream of wealth haunts 
us day and night, and is so persistent that we 
are prone to forget everything else. So strong 
has become this tendency that a balance-wheel 
or a safety-valve is very much needed in order 
that we may not run away with ourselves and 
miss the true wealth which we seek. 

When we pause a moment and take time to 
think, we know that money is not wealth, but 
only the medium of exchange by means of which 
we obtain those things which really enrich us. 
A man may possess millions and yet be so poor 
9 


HOW TO BE RICH 


and miserable as to end his life by suicide; or 
on the other hand, with but a scant supply of 
^ dollars be so rich in life as to want to live on 
* forever. 

It is these larger and more fundamental 
things, therefore, to which we ought to devote 
the best of life. Yet, how often our higher life 
fails to draw out the treasures of its environ¬ 
ment. 

I heard a group of young girls talking one 
day of a companion, a girl of sixteen. They 
said she had run the whole round of pleasures 
and exhausted all there was in life, so that 
nothing interested her any more. Poor thing! 
How narrow must have been her range of vi¬ 
sion! and how cheap her taste of existence! 
When we think of the flood of treasures that 
a beneficent and bountiful Creator has poured 
around this old world, we can not but conclude 
that those maidens were only wading in some 
little frog pond, dreaming all the while that it 
was the ocean. 

There is a life worth while, rich beyond all 
io 


) 


THE SOURCES OF WEALTH 


the dreams of the soul, if we have but the spir- \\ 
itual instinct to discover it. 

The marvelous personality that God has 
given us finds expression in a many-sided and 
complex life. Some would have us believe that 
we have only a physical existence; and still 
more—who believe better—act as if this were 
true. Many give all their time and thought to 
the merely animal part of their being. Others f 
would teach that the mind is all there is of us, 
and let the body suffer and die because of a silly 
and immoral fad. Then we find, too, saints— 
so called—who regard the body as a burden and 
a curse, mental culture a delusion, social life a 
snare, the delights of nature and art as devices 
of the devil; and who would have us take up 
an abnormal spiritual existence as the only thing 
pleasing to God. 

Utterly false are all such conceptions of life. 

If we would take life naturally as it unfolds, 
and seek the best development of every phase 
of it, we would be truly rich. 

But, what do we mean by such a life and 
training? n 


HOW TO BE RICH 


The child is conscious at first only of phys¬ 
ical need, and its pleasures consist in those 
things that satisfy and bring comfort to the 
body. As soon as it grows a little older it comes 
to enjoy mother’s fairy tales and the recital of 
simple stories. Its mental life is opening to the 
great world of literature and mind. Instruments 
of music bring delight, and still another realm 
is opened to its expanding vision. It comes to 
love pictures, the society of its companions, and 
other sources of enjoyment. These all contrib¬ 
ute their share to the enlargement of the life. 
The thing we should never forget is that every 
side of this life is God-given, and should be God- 
used. 

As the wealth of the field and orchard lies 
in their fruitfulness, so the true wealth of this 
life of ours lies in what it is able to make out of 
the raw materials of its existence. That life 
only is rich which is productive—which utilizes 
its experiences in the world, and weaves them 
into the richer fabric of the soul. 

There are many sources outside of self for 


12 


THE SOURCES OF WEALTH 


the enrichment of our being—for the building 
up of that life which alone is worth the living. 

Nature, which is the visible expression of the 
thought of the Eternal Mind, is one of these. 
Rich, indeed, is that life which is lived in touch 
with the heart of the world. If young people 
would seek an acquaintance with the natural 
world so full of wonder and charm, they would 
find it much easier to keep away from those 
things that are undesirable. 

The many phases of our contact with other 
minds is invaluable, and one of the richest 
sources of life. Especially is this true of that 
aspect of it which is afforded by the world of 
books—too much liable to neglect in these days. 
The great works of literature are the medium 
of the world’s highest inspiration, and its great 
reservoirs of mental and spiritual power. Poor 
beyond expression is that life that has not 
learned to keep company with the greatest men 
and women of the ages through those books 
which are the best product of their souls. 

But the chief and final source of the life 


13 


HOW TO BE RICH 


that would be really rich must be found in the 
subtle fellowship of the human spirit with that 
intelligence which lies back of all things. 

These things must become our own in a very 
real sense. We can not be enriched by that 
which does not become a part of ourselves. 

The field of ripened grain is rich and pre¬ 
cious, not by what was in the soil of the field, 
but only by that part of it which was woven 
into the very structure of its own being. That 
which can not be so used is worthless. The rose 
is red and sweet with its own characteristic per¬ 
fume because it wrought into itself just those 
elements which would produce such results, and 
rejected what was foreign to its purpose. Gold 
is made less and not more valuable by the dross 
incorporated with it. So that only is true wealth 
which is so used as to enrich the life itself and 
make it more worth the living. Money and 
the other good things of the world of a material 
sort may be so used as to contribute largely to 
this end, or they may be so used as to give an 
opposite result So in themselves they can not be 
14 


THE SOURCES OF WEALTH 


regarded as riches. True wealth consists not in 
dollars, but in the life which dollars may con¬ 
tribute their share toward enriching. It is only 
through the uses to which they may be put 
that dollars become a part of our real wealth. 

The declaration of every individual should 
be, u What I want is not a rich living, I want 
only a rich life.” 

Because of these truths our discussion in 
this little book must deal not with money, or its 
equivalent, but with this many-sided life. Here, 
or not at all, must we find the riches of existence, 
the wealth of the universe. 


15 


A 

















j 













II. Natural Wealth 






“In the woods we return to reason and faith.” 

— Emerson . 


“The sky is a drinking cup, 

That was overturned of old, 
And it pours in the eyes of men 
Its wine of airy gold. 

We drink that wine all day 

Till the last drop is drained up, 
And are lighted off to bed 
By the jewels in the cup.” 

—Richard Henry Stoddard . 


“A man must have quiet and solitude in order to find him¬ 
self—one of the great ends of human seeking.” 

“The fruit of the orchard ripens through long days and 
quiet nights; and the spirit of man must ripen under like con¬ 
ditions.” 

“There is no medicine so potent as the sweet breath and 
the sweeter seclusion of the woods; there is no tonic like a free 
life under the open sky.” —Hamilton Wright Mabie. 


NATURAL WEALTH 


No ranker heresy was ever uttered than the 
old and oft repeated statement, made by those 
who thought themselves strictly orthodox, that 
“This world is a desert drear.” It is a desert 
only to those whose souls are shrunken and 
shriveled, or who have been sadly misled by false 
teaching. 

Well do I remember how in boyhood days 
my soul revolted from that thought. I hated 
and despised the very words with which it was 
expressed. How utterly false it was to all my 
experiences. How I delighted in the blessed in¬ 
sights of the barefoot boy as he touched, after 
the simplest fashion, the good things of life. 
The tickle of the grass on his bare feet in spring¬ 
time; the lying under the apple trees as they 
rained their blossoms upon him, and delighted 
the air with their uncloying sweetness; the blue 
19 


HOW TO BE RICH 


of the sky with its floating clouds, and the mys¬ 
tery of space and time, life and eternity; the 
rustle of the corn and the ripple of the brook; 
the delightful aroma of the muskmelon and the 
peach; the gold of the pumpkin, the crimson of 
the strawberry, the purple of the grape, and the 
brilliant hues of the flowers; the flavor of the 
berries, and the wild plums of the thicket; the 
fellowship of the little creatures of the woods 
and fields,—all these, and more of their kind, 
made this world to me a place fit to spend eter¬ 
nity in. 

How delightfully sane and sensible is James 
Whitcomb Riley when he plunges into “The Old 
Swimmin ’ Hole,” or wades “Knee-deep in 
June.” How sweet the memories awakened by 
words like these: 

“Tell you what I like the best— 

’Long about knee-deep in June, 

’Bout the time strawberries melts 
On the vine,—some afternoon, 

Like to jes’ git out and rest, 

And not work at nothin’ else. 

“Orchard’s where I’d ruther be— 

Need n’t £ence it in fer me— 


20 


NATURAL WEALTH 


Jes’ the whole sky overhead, 

And the whole airth underneath. 

“Tumble round and souse yer head 
In the clover bloom, er pull 
Yer straw hat acrost yer eyes 
And peek through it at the skies.” 

How rich the life that can revel in such 
simple luxuries; and how true to fact is the poet 
when he sings: 

“ O the world is full of roses, and the roses full of dew, 

And the dew is full of heavenly love that drips for me 
and you.” 

How true also to the normal, healthy life 
are the words which Browning puts into the 
mouth of David as he sings to the troubled 
soul of Saul: 

“O the wild joys of living. The leaping from rock 
up to rock.” 

The strong rending of boughs from the fir-tree, the 
cool silver shock 

Of the plunge in a pool’s living water, the hunt of 
the bear, 

And the meal, the rich dates yellowed over with 
gold dust divine, 

And the sleep in the dried river channel where bul¬ 
rushes tell 

That the water was wont to go warbling so softly 
and well. 


21 


HOW TO BE RICH 


How good is man’s life, the mere living; how fit 
to employ 

All the heart and the soul and the senses forever 
in joy.” 

What untold good would be wrought if this 
song could be sung effectively in the hearts of all 
men. 

Recently in my reading I came across this 
base slander on the Almighty: 

“ Since all the riches of this world 

May be gifts from the devil and earthly things, 

I should suspect that I worshiped the devil 
If I thanked my God for worldly things.” 

Any one living in God’s beautiful world who 
has eyes and heart to see in it only the work of 
the devil, is not only lacking in gratitude to the 
Giver of all good, but is incapable of having fel¬ 
lowship with Him in many of His most marvel¬ 
ous manifestations. That one who does not en¬ 
joy the simple, artless beauty of woods and 
fields, and who does not delight at times in 
getting away from the artificial glamour and 
sham of society, has something in his makeup 
that is abnormal and to be dreaded. He very 


22 


NATURAL WEALTH 


much needs sanity and balance, and the ca¬ 
pacity to know the good when he sees it. 

It is high time the Christian world were 
getting away from the old monkish notion that 
this World is in itself evil. It is only the man 
who has gotten out of harmony with nature and 
with nature’s God of whom that can be said. 
If any part of God’s workmanship is to be de¬ 
spised, it is he who by his own choice of evil has 
lost the divine imprint from his soul. If any 
taint of evil is to be found in nature it is on his 
account, and will speedily be remedied when he 
is again set right with God, and once more 
finds himself in league with the forces of 
righteousness. 

When we hear any one disparaging the work 
of God in nature, we have much the same feeling 
as a friend of ours who took a young lady up to 
see the splendid view from a high hill near his 
home. A magnificent stretch of country spread 
out in every direction. Soul inspiring and thrill¬ 
ing as was the scene, she gave it a momentary 
glance and went on with her cheap twaddle of 
23 


HOW TO BE RICH 


conversation, with no more'apreciation of it than 
the cattle grazing on the hillside. She fell far in 
the estimation of our friend, and deservedly so. 
His ideal in her was shattered. He was dis¬ 
gusted at the revelation of her smallness of 
soul. 

How immeasurably richer the one who can 
say with the poets of old: “Speak to the earth, 
and it shall teach thee.” “Stand still, and con¬ 
sider the wondrous works of God.” “Day 
unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night 
showeth knowledge.” 

God has given us all things to enjoy, and 
with which to enrich our lives. He has given us 
both the world without and the world within, 
and both alike are His domain. He expects 
us by using the one to enrich the other and be¬ 
come great. He put man in the garden “To 
dress and keep it;” and He intended him by 
gaining dominion over it to prove his kinship 
with the divine. This world, which saints of 
a former age thought to be evil only, is on 
further study found to be an essential part of 
24 


NATURAL WEALTH 


God’s good gifts, to develop and train man in 
order that he may be truly great. 

The new interest and delight that men and 
women have recently been taking in nature 
studies, and the pleasure taken in such writings 
as those of Thoreau, Burroughs, John Muir, 
and a host of others, is a most encouraging sign 
of the world’s return to sanity and health. 

Through the ages nature has been one of 
the mighty levers by means of which God has 
lifted man to higher and diviner levels. From 
the standpoint of material wealth, nature is 
man’s best friend. Not to speak of the wealth 
that he digs from the soil in the shape of gold 
and jewels; not to mention the wealth of agricul¬ 
tural products: in a more subtle sense nature 
enriches by awakening the minds of men to a 
knowledge of the treasure producing qualities of 
their environment. 

In order to be at his best—to be really rich 
—man must have greatness of mind, goodness 
of heart, and the power of achievement. This 
natural world in a large and important sense is 
25 


HOW TO BE RICH 


the platform upon which God stands to pro¬ 
ject these qualities into the minds and hearts of 
men. 

What a blessing it is to the race that after 
God has filled the world with things of priceless 
worth, He has not put a fence around them and 
said, “Hands off!” What a glorious thing it is, 
too, that He has made it forever impossible for 
man himself to do that with those things that are 
most indispensable. If it could by any pos¬ 
sibility have been done, man through his monop¬ 
olies would ere this have gobbled up the air and 
the sunlight and the beauties of the landscape, 
and have doled them out in starvation measure 
to his fellow-beings at an exorbitant rate. 

By far too many men are like Thoreau’s 
farmer, who lived on the shore of one of the 
beautiful New England lakes; “who loved 
better the reflecting surface of a dollar or a 
bright cent, in which he could see his own brazen 
face; who regarded even the ducks which settled 
in it as trespassers; his fingers grown into 
crooked and horny talons from the long habit 
26 


NATURAL WEALTH 


of grasping; who would carry his God to mar¬ 
ket if he could get anything for him.” 

Many of nature’s riches are enjoyed by the 
simplest minds without thought and without 
effort, but others, such as the discovery of the 
laws of nature and life, and the control of 
such forces as those of steam and electricity, 
have come into the possession of men only after 
they have gained intellectual strength to ac¬ 
quire dominion over them. 

Still others of earth’s riches we have every 
reason to believe yet lie about us undiscovered. 
There are heights and depths in the wealth of 
God’s workmanship here in this world which 
we have not reached nor of which we have even 
dreamed. As some one has said, “Glimpses of 
shadow flit now and again over our mountain 
peaks of attainment, revealing to us the presence 
of birds as yet too near the sun for our feeble 
vision.” 

When men first came to inhabit the world, 
their life, their thought, their methods of work 
must have been very simple and primitive, in- 
27 


HOW TO BE RICH 


deed. But they found the world around them 
stimulating to inquiry and suggestive of prog¬ 
ress. It has led them on step by step until 
they have come at least some noticeable dis¬ 
tance up the heights. The observation of the 
regular coming of day and night, summer and 
winter, rain and sunshine, seed-time and harvest, 
and a multitude of other things, led man to see 
that there was plan, thought, intelligence behind 
the forces of nature. He was led from the be¬ 
ginning to put this and that together and form 
conclusions. Everything was so constructed as 
to induce thought. 

From the first time he warmed the water in 
his crude earthen vessels, until the days of Watt 
and Stephenson, the steam sent up an unheeded 
challenge for him to harness its slumbering 
forces. From the first lightning flash that 
darted like a fiery serpent over the childhood 
home of the race, the thunders have been 
crashing over his head as if to break by force 
through the denseness of his ignorance, and 
awaken him to the fact that here, too, was a 
28 


NATURAL WEALTH 


mighty giant, over whom God intended him 
to have control. As he pitched his tent of 
bark and built his campfire on the soft, black 
rock, cropping out of the hillside, he discovered 
that the rock itself would burn, and thus he 
learned how to use the condensed vegetable 
wealth of earlier ages, which a foreseeing and 
cycle-planning Mind has stored for his use. 
From the tempest which overturned his tent 
or rude hut, and which blew him along or re¬ 
tarded his progress as he faced it, he learned 
to put up his sails and drive his boat over the 
waters. By the loadstone and the stars he 
learned to find his path. Finally, by putting to¬ 
gether the water and the wood, or the condensed 
power of the coal into his engine, he learned how 
to use the power of steam which made him 
largely independent of tide and wind and cur¬ 
rent. So, too, he learned how to yoke the hor¬ 
rible giant of the skies, who was supposed to 
amuse himself by hurling thunderbolts at his 
enemies, and make him a winged ox to draw 
his cart. 


29 


HOW TO BE RICH 


Thus both by the common things of life and 
by those mighty forces so great as to be practi¬ 
cally measureless, yet so delicate as to escape us 
for ages, we see how God has been leading out 
the mind of man until he becomes truly a son of 
the Most High. He has learned from his life 
with nature that not only a constant energy, but 
an intelligent, skillful, designing Mind lies back 
of all things, after whose likeness his own mind 
has been fashioned. He is learning the plans of 
the great Designer through familiarity with the 
workmanship of his hands. 

What he has already learned is prophetic of 
his future. If from the hollow wheat stalk we 
learn to build our strongest columns, if from 
the fishes we learn to build our submarines, and 
from the tiny-winged creatures of the air how 
to construct our aeroplanes; and if from the 
artistic forms and colors of flowers our great 
painters learn their lessons, how much more may 
we not receive through a still more intimate 
comradeship with that life which we have too 
long despised? 


30 


NATURAL WEALTH 


The very riches of God are ours in fellow¬ 
ship with nature. Wealth undreamed of lies 
within easy reach of the soul whose eyes are 
keen and whose mind has not been blunted by 
the doing of wrong things. As the gains of 
the past, with all our imperfections, have been 
marvelous, with truer living and thinking, why 
may not the progress that is to come rival the 
wonders of dreamland? 

Not only wealth of invention, and progress, 
and of material good, but wealth of happiness 
and character are to be found in the fields and 
woods. 

When God wants to train a really great 
leader, He almost invariably either brings him 
up in fellowship with nature, or else drives him 
out, as He did Moses, to where the very bushes 
are aglow with the divine presence. In the wil¬ 
derness and the desert and in the mountain soli¬ 
tudes many a man has been made great. It is a 
remarkable fact that the vast majority of the 
great minds of the world have been developed 
amid the solitudes and sweet influences of 


3i 


HOW TO BE RICH 


nature. By far the larger part of the ad¬ 
vanced students of to-day were brought up at a 
distance from the centers of trade and the 
throngs of great cities. In spite of the ad¬ 
vantages and the better opportunity for study¬ 
ing human life, there is something in life amid 
the crowd that is distracting and unfavorable 
to continued thought. Life becomes fragmen¬ 
tary, and taken up too much with the trifles of 
existence. In the quiet and separation incident 
to country life, there is that which impels the 
thoughtful mind to great themes. The very 
lack of other things to engage one, forces the 
thought outward to nature, and inward upon 
itself until the soul is brought face to face with 
the most profound problems that can occupy 
the minds of men. 

Many persons in the city dread the thought 
of living in the country as they would dread a 
ghost or a haunted house. They dread it be¬ 
cause they can not go there without meeting a 
ghost of their own real but forgotten selves of 
which they are afraid—and because nature’s 
32 


NATURAL WEALTH 


quiet walks are haunted by the noiseless foot¬ 
steps of God Himself as He walks in His 
garden in the cool of the day—and His presence, 
too, they want to avoid. These are just the two 
personages, however, which most people need 
to meet and become familiar with. When we 
come to a clear, accurate, and profound knowl¬ 
edge of ourselves, of men, and of God, we have 
in us the essentials of great leadership. 

Nature is not only a teacher but a tonic, 
not only an instructor but an inspiration to the 
highest. There is life in the ozone of the for¬ 
est, and delight to be had in the study of its 
manifold forms. We know people who have 
spent their lives in the country, and yet scarcely 
know the name of a wild flower or a bird, and 
others who are in such intimate fellowship with 
its feathered creatures that every bird note is 
the voice of a well known friend, and every 
flower is almost as sweet to them as the smile 
of God. 

To know the birds, trees, and flowers as fa¬ 
miliar friends is to have opened up to one’s 
3 33 


HOW TO BE RICH 

soul a never ending source of delight and profit. 
Some time ago, with a friend, I went for a few 
days up into the mountains. Leaving the train 
at a little station among the hills, we were soon 
climbing the mountain-side. Forest fires were 
burning although it was April, and we found the 
whole country for miles had been burned over. 
All was black and smoking, and with the great 
rocks heaped in wild confusion, it reminded one 
of the scenes in Dante’s Inferno. On past 
the burned district we went to where miles of 
budding forest in its primeval grandeur stood 
untouched alike by the woodman’s ax and the 
ravages of the flames. Along the borders of 
this vast wilderness, miles from the shriek of 
the locomotive and the habitations of men, we 
spent a few days alone with nature. Wading 
the pure mountain streams; drinking the spark¬ 
ling, crystal waters of its ice-cold springs; catch¬ 
ing glimpses of the speckled beauties inhab¬ 
iting those unpolluted waters; smelling the 
fragrance of unfolding buds; listening to the 
unterrified notes of the forest songsters; and 
34 


NATURAL WEALTH 


looking into the upturned faces of the flowers, 
spotless as the untainted air of those solitudes, 
we found our lives renewed as though we had 
touched the very sources of life itself, and drank 
from the fountains of perpetual youth. Here 
we touched, indeed, the very source of life. As 
we studied the flowers, some of them new to 
us, and of uncommon beauty, we could not help 
but indulge in a train of thought that came 
almost uninvited. Tennyson wrote: 


“ Flower in the crannied wall, 

I pluck you out of the crannies, 

I hold you here, root and all in my hand. 
Little flower—but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
• I should know what God and man is.” 


Yes, little flower, you do not grow for me 
to-day in the crannied wall, but you teach me life. 
As I look into your upturned face and search the 
depths of your very soul with my microscope and 
find you only more beautiful, you tell me that 
He who made your beauty and purity wants my 
life, too, fit to bear close inspection. As I see 


35 


HOW TO BE RICH 


your companions, differing from you and from 
each other in form, size, color, fragrance, and 
in so many other ways, I am reminded that I 
also differ from my fellows, and that I have no 
business quarreling with them because of those 
differences. As I admire your beauty and sweet¬ 
ness in this mountain wilderness, where per¬ 
haps no other eyes than mine ever feasted or 
shall feast on your loveliness, it teaches me that 
the Wisdom that fashioned you with so much 
care is not unmindful of my life, which He has 
made wise enough to understand His own mar¬ 
velous thought. 

When I am reminded, too, that the function 
of your being is to produce beauty or perfume or 
fruit, or all of these, from the elements about 
you, I am forced to the conclusion that my life 
is intended to produce things of value—that 
which will be full of beauty and sweetness and 
worth to men and angels. 

Yes, little flower, I am persuaded that the 
poet wrote the truth. Yet how many people 
are blind to nature’s riches! 

36 


NATURAL WEALTH 

On returning one evening from a visit to 
some friends in the country, I observed a hill on 
the other side of the river that I had not seen 
before, but which I at once recognized as the 
highest in the vicinity. Having lived in the 
community but a short time, I had heard nothing 
of that hill, but I immediately made up my mind 
to climb it, sure that such an effort would be 
worth while. Accordingly, one day when I 
found sufficient leisure, I crossed the river and 
after a little search found and ascended that 
knob. I was not disappointed. Spread out be¬ 
fore me was such a glorious view as I had never 
before looked upon. I shall never forget my 
sensations as I reached the summit. I felt as if 
I were standing on the top of the world, and I 
held my breath lest the fairy wand of that 
zephyr from the west should sweep me off into 
space. One hill after another rose before my as¬ 
tonished vision, reaching away in every direc¬ 
tion. There was absolutely nothing to obstruct 
the view, north, south, east, or west, until 
knobs and peaks were lost in the mists of the 
37 


HOW TO BE RICH 


distance. Hundreds of square miles of hill and 
valley lay at my feet, and for the first time in my 
life I felt as if I were really out of doors. As 
my soul adjusted itself to its surroundings, I 
thought what a magnificent spot for the home of 
a thinker or a poet. The inspiration of such a 
home would almost make a poet of any man. 
Yet I found any number of people who had 
lived all their lives in sight of that hill-top in 
utter ignorance of it all, never having known 
what it was to catch the inspiration of the high¬ 
lands. 

So everywhere most people live their little 
lives in touch with nature, all the while totally 
unconscious of the wealth that is theirs for the 
asking. If I but keep my eyes open and my 
soul alert, by the manifold expression of the 
thought of her Author, she enriches my being 
and discloses to me mines of unused treasure. 

None of us can afford to miss the wealth 
of life which comes from an intimate acquaint¬ 
ance and fellowship with nature. Men must at 
times get out of the shop, the office, the store, the 
38 


NATURAL WEALTH 


study, and lie close to nature if they would be 
strong and rich. 

“ O what a glory doth this world put on 
For him who, with a fervent heart goes forth 
Under the bright and glorious sky and looks 
On duties well performed, and days well spent. 

For him the wind, aye, and the yellow leaves 
Shall have a voice, and give him eloquent teaching. 

“ If thou art worn and hard beset 

With sorrows that thou would’st forget; 

If thou would’st read a lesson that will keep 
Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep ; 

Go to the woods and hills. No tears 
Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.” 


39 













III. Co-operative Production 


“By mutual confidence and mutual aid, 

Great deeds are done, and great discoveries made.” 

— Homer. 

“Every great man is always being helped by everybody, for 
his gift is to get good out of all things and all persons.” 

— Ruskin. 

“I see from my house by the side of the road, 

By the side of the highway of life, 

The men who press with the ardor of hope, 

The men who are faint with the strife. 

But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears— 
Both parts of an infinite plan— 

Let me live in a house by the side of the road 
And be a friend of man.” 

—Sam Walter Foss. 

“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the counte 
nance of his friend. As in water face answereth to face, so the 
heart of man to man.”— Proverbs. 


CO-OPERATIVE PRODUCTION 


Important as are the silent, uplifting influences 
of nature upon the human spirit, this is but a part 
of life. Man must both receive and give to be 
rich. For this reason, if for no other, he must 
mingle with his fellows. Not only one but 
many advantages are to be gained by so doing, 
not only for himself but for others as well. 

It is said that in an Italian city stands a 
beautiful statue of a Greek slave girl; and that 
one day a little, dirty, ragged child, looking 
upon it, went home to wash her face. Com¬ 
ing again she saw the neatness of the sculptor’s 
art, and because of it went back, this time to 
make neat and clean her own attire. So it is 
that we, seeing the virtues and higher attain¬ 
ments of our fellows, find ourselves lifted in 
the scale of being. Then we in our turn, 
whether we will it or no, become benefactors 
of the race. It can not possibly be otherwise. 
43 


HOW TO BE RICH 


A stagnant pool may be held in by a dam, 
but not so a living stream. It will seep through, 
or run around, or overflow every obstruction 
put in its path. So the soul that really lives 
will make itself felt on the lives of others 
according to its inner quality. It will either 
scorch and wither, or refresh and give life. 

One day I gathered a bunch of beautiful 
flowers and put them on my study table. A 
little later I found one of another species, one 
of the most perfect specimens of its kind I had 
ever seen, and put it among the others in the 
same glass of water, thinking I should enjoy its 
loveliness for at least a week. I was very much 
surprised to see it droop on its stem, and in 
an hour or two be withered and ugly. Only 
one theory could account for it—the first flow¬ 
ers had imparted some quality to the water that 
meant death to the other. 

So it may be in our more complex life. 

“ The smallest bark on life’s tumultuous ocean 
Will leave a track behind for evermore ; 

The lightest wave of influence, once in motion, 
Extends and widens to the eternal shore. 

44 


CO-OPERATIVE PRODUCTION 


We should be wary, then, who go before 
A myriad yet to be, and we should take 
Our bearings carefully where breakers roar 
And fearful tempests gather ; one mistake 
May wreck unnumbered barks that follow 
in our wake.” 

Small may these influences seem at times, 
yet they count for much in the final result. In 
the past one of the most worthless products of 
the farm has been the dried cornstalks, stripped 
of foliage, lying about the fields. Now it is dis¬ 
covered that the pulp of this waste material 
can be turned into the most beautiful white pa¬ 
per, and enough of it to supply the needs of the 
world. Even so may the odds and ends of our 
time and influence, which we have regarded as 
waste material, be turned into products that will 
enrich the world. 

Life can not be rich with the development 
of all its possibilities without this interaction of 
personalities on each other. Our business and 
industrial life to-day is a very complex affair. 
The success of every undertaking depends upon 
both money and labor, upon both brain and 


45 


HOW TO BE RICH 


brawn. The turning out of any machine or 
other product is dependent upon a multitude 
of men, each in his particular place doing that 
part of the work assigned him, and which he 
understands best how to do. In like manner 
different branches of industry are dependent 
upon each other. The iron business depends 
upon the coal production, and both upon the 
efficiency of the railroads; the manufacture of 
clothing upon the productiveness of the farms 
in cotton and wool; and so on, from top to bot¬ 
tom of our industrial life. Co-operation is ab¬ 
solutely necessary if either the individual or so¬ 
ciety is to be rich. So it is in our higher life. 

As the “Eye can not say unto the hand, I 
have no need of thee; nor again the head to 
the feet, I have no need of you;” so we can not 
live our lives independently of each other, “for 
we are all members one of another.” 

It was said long ago “it is not good for 
man to be alone,” and the experience of the 
ages justifies the wisdom of the statement. 

A student of rhetoric sat one day before a 

46 


CO-OPERATIVE PRODUCTION 


picture which hung in a recitation room, and 
upon which he had been required to write a 
story. It was that of an old castle on the banks 
of an Eastern river, rearing its grim and solemn 
walls against the blue sky. In the olden time 
many a chivalrous footfall had been heard in 
those halls, and many a fair lady had found 
safety behind those battlements; but now all is 
silent there, and we see but the moss-covered 
old ruin as it crumbles slowly to decay. It of¬ 
fered a fine plot for a story dealing with the 
life of the former inhabitants, or a sidelight 
upon the history of the past; and the student 
wrote out a purely fanciful picture with none 
of his own personality in it, for he had experi¬ 
enced nothing to make him feel what he wrote. 

A year or two later he sat in his room one 
night, far from home and friends. He was still 
a student engaged in the struggle for knowl¬ 
edge. Worrying and distracting thoughts ran 
riot in his brain, and he could not study. He 
tried for awhile to master the thought of an 
old Greek writer, but he could not accomplish 

47 


HOW TO BE RICH 


anything, and finally threw the book on the floor 
in disgust and took up a Latin author, hoping 
for better success. He was not in a mood for 
study, and after a fruitless effort sent the old 
Roman under the bed to find his comrade—or 
his enemy, as the case might be—and gave him¬ 
self to gloomy forebodings of a grim and sar¬ 
castic professor scowling at his shrinking form 
from behind a green table covered with the 
“classics” his learned head had mastered. He 
could not help wondering why, if the Greeks 
were made so great by the study of their own 
language and literature, we might not be able 
to achieve at least a reasonable amount of great¬ 
ness by the study of our own, instead of trying 
with such a mighty effort to get into their out¬ 
worn shell. 

But a picture lying on his study table sent 
his thought back again to that one of the old 
castle. Not that the two pictures were alike, 
for they had nothing in common; yet something 
in the secret of his own life coupled the one 
with the other in his thinking at that particular 
48 


CO-OPERATIVE PRODUCTION 


moment. Another sketch was the result,—a 
sketch not written out, but traced vividly upon 
his thought. It was a picture of his own life, 
and clear and strong because it was a part of 
himself. 

The old and empty walls of the castle sug¬ 
gested to his mind a heart into which no beaute¬ 
ous being had ever come to dwell, and which, 
as a result, was crumbling to decay. A picture 
of what until lately seemed probable to his own 
life. But as he looked at the photo before him 
he thanked God that his heart had found its 
occupant, and that the holy place of his soul 
was no longer left empty. His life had run in 
a different channel in many respects from most 
young men, and as it passed before him in his 
thought that night the picture afforded him a 
great deal of entertainment. As the angel’s 
brush sketched it for him, there was revealed a 
barefoot boy on a real country farm far away 
from the noise and hurry of the world. He was 
light-hearted and free; but with the first en¬ 
trance into the schoolroom a fire was kindled 


4 


49 


HOW TO BE RICH 

in his bosom which was to burn more and more 
brightly. 

A few years later found him day after day 
and night after night toiling over the musty old 
volumes of school libraries, and puzzling his 
brain over things for which he had no definite 
idea why he toiled,—only the desire to become 
learned. His nature sometimes rebelled at all 
this, but still he pressed on, spurred by a rest¬ 
less ambition. 

Yet with all this love for books he loved 
nature as well, and on pleasant evenings and 
bright sunny days he loved, like the old fly in 
springtime, to crawl out of the crack or crevice 
where he had been so long confined and breathe 
the pure air and bask under the open sky. After 
a long winter of digging and searching in the 
mine of scholastic wisdom he would go out, 
when spring came, into the thick woods and 
wander through the fields fragrant with sweet 
flowers, and by the streams which make ever 
delightful music as they ripple down to the river 
and sink themselves in its placid bosom. As he 
50 


CO-OPERATIVE PRODUCTION 


mused on these beauties a new beauty came into 
his life, and his restless soul grew into self- 
knowledge and contentment. 

His thoughtful mood led the thoughtless 
and trifling companions with whom he spent 
his earlier years to often pass him by unnoticed; 
and returning scorn for scorn, he was compelled 
to plod on alone, without any real friends. 
There were many in the world whom he could 
have made very delightful companions, but, 
through the unfortunate limitations of his en¬ 
vironment, he was out of touch with them at 
this critical period of his life, and was in danger 
of becoming a recluse. But as he studied nature 
and looked through nature to her God, he found 
a friend in both, and his heart came more and 
more into sympathy with the great world about 
him. He acquired a great love for these strolls 
amid the quietness and beauty of nature, and 
would sit sometimes on a fallen tree in the forest 
and watch the transparent waters of the brook 
or listen to its music as it wound itself like a 
silver serpent through the valley, or at other 
5i 


HOW TO BE RICH 


times lie on a mossy bank, lost in thought and 
reverie. Sometimes, when in a more sociable 
mood, he would take a friend with him, or 
even take a row on the beautiful little lake near 
the village, and himself pull the oars, while a 
fair and more delicate hand guided the rudder. 
He still failed to find the companionship for 
which his soul longed, yet he was coming to 
believe much in the living, active world about 
him. 

At length, when he had come into closer 
connection with human life through his chosen 
profession, one spring, as he gathered the ar¬ 
butus and the anemones of the wood, he per¬ 
mitted his eyes to rest upon a flower of different 
genus, and his heart welled up within him, and 
tears came to his eyes. He was naturally of 
a sympathetic nature, and his affections were 
widened and deepened by the experience, for it 
was the sweetest flower the world had thus far 
yielded him. He was a man of keen sensibilities 
and strong passions. Especially was he a lover 
of the virtuous and the beautiful, and when any 
52 


CO-OPERATIVE PRODUCTION 


object presented Itself to his mind as the em¬ 
bodiment of both, he must of necessity be 
strongly drawn toward that object. Such a be¬ 
ing in human form had passed before the sensi¬ 
tive plate of his soul, and by a strange, sweet 
light had left her image there, engraven in lines 
of indescribable delicacy and beauty. As he, 
like the old castle, had stood half apart from 
the real present-day life of the world, the light 
of that sweet face had fallen upon him, and a 
pair of bright eyes had looked into his with an 
air of trusting confidence and tenderest love 
from beneath a mass of dark hair, and he by 
that experience had been lifted out of the past 
into a new existence. Her influence was like a 
benediction upon him. All things he looked 
upon were pure if he but thought of her. He 
loved her because of this purifying and uplift¬ 
ing influence, and breathed a prayer that it 
might ever continue. He had fully become a 
man among men, henceforth to be touched by 
all those influences that stir and mold manhood 
into its best. 


53 


HOW TO BE RICH 


Thus it is by the loves and friendships and 
the various associations of life that the lives of 
men and women are mellowed, modified, and en¬ 
riched. 

The life lived apart from the crowd, how¬ 
ever rich in itself, is only half a life. We need 
the companionship of others to bring out the 
full glory and greatness of our humanity—to 
be indeed rich as the Author of life intended. 
Contact with other minds is necessary to cure 
our crudeness and eccentricities. 

Yet society is wrong in demanding that all 
the corners be smoothed off. We need to come 
up against some sharp corners now and then, to 
jolt us back to sense and true life. We need 
to remember that there is such a thing as right 
and wrong. A man may be none the less a 
gentleman because he stands uncompromisingly 
for the right. He is neither a true man nor a 
friend of society if he does not. 

Cultivate as many deep, warm, abiding 
friendships as possible, if they be with the peo¬ 
ple who are themselves rich in the qualities of 
noble life. 54 


CO-OPERATIVE PRODUCTION 


The parent very soon discovers as the little 
ones go out of the home to choose their com¬ 
panions, the enriching or impoverishing charac¬ 
ter of life’s friendships. These co-operative 
forces are exerted most powerfully, however, in 
the home. The home exerts the deepest influ¬ 
ence on life. We who have passed the forma¬ 
tive period of life know what a large part the 
life and thought—the atmosphere—of the old 
home had in making us what we are. We who 
are parents may think sometimes that the im¬ 
pressions we have tried to make count for but 
little; but they are vastly more important than 
we dream. 

Careful investigation, made by one of our 
State Young Men’s Christian Associations, has 
furnished evidence that where both parents are 
Christians seventy-eight per cent of the young 
men become Christians. Where only one par¬ 
ent is a Christian but thirty per cent follow the 
better example. And where neither parent is 
a Christian scarcely five per cent of the boys be¬ 
come such. Were the influence in every case all 
55 


HOW TO BE RICH 


that it ought to be, it is safe to say that nine 
in every ten of the young men would choose the 
way of Christ, with all the richness of life that 
this means. 

We are all well aware that there are those 
who object to childhood religion, and who in¬ 
sist on allowing the child to “grow up and 
choose for himself.” But a little reflection must 
convince us that such an attitude is one of the 
most unworthy things of which any parent can 
be guilty. We enjoy the innocence and purity 
of the little life or lives which God has sent into 
our homes, and with which He has entrusted 
us; and by such a course refuse to give them 
the best in return. The ministry of childhood 
is a blessed thing. Frank L. Stanton very beau¬ 
tifully and tenderly touches upon it in one of 
his poems. Coming out of the shadow of a 
great trial, he says: 

“ A little hand stole softly 
Into my own that day, 

When it needed the touch that I loved so much, 

To strengthen me on my way. 


CO-OPERATIVE PRODUCTION 


“ Softer it seemed than the softest down 
On the breast of the gentlest dove ; 

But its timid press and its faint caress 
Were strong in the strength of love. 

“ It seemed to say in a strange, sweet way, 

I love you and understand ; 

And calmed my fears as my hot heart-tears 
Fell over that little hand. 

“ Perhaps there are tenderer, sweeter things 
Somewhere in that sun-bright land, 

But I thank God for His blessing 
In the clasp of that little hand.” 

That one who is blessed of God in the touch 
of a little hand, and who does not direct that 
hand in the doing of that which is best, deserves 
the severest things the universe of God is ca¬ 
pable of meting out to him. 

Even the birds and the beasts lead their 
young to those things which they have found to 
be the best; and shall not man, who has a higher 
intelligence, do as well? It would not enter our 
thought to say in regard to our little one’s intel¬ 
lectual training, “Let him grow up and choose 
for himself whether he wants to read or not.” 
The experience of mankind has taught us that 

57 


HOW TO BE RICH 


education is a good thing; therefore we insist 
on giving the child the best possible training in 
that direction. The experience of the race has 
taught likewise, and with even greater empha¬ 
sis, that every life needs moral balance and to 
be well grounded in the virtues of Christian 
character or it will inevitably fall short of the 
best things. And yet, when it is suggested that 
we give some direction on these most important 
things, some people throw up their hands in 
horror and exclaim, “It will never do; you 
must let him grow up and choose for himself.” 

Some people seem to think if you train up a 
child in the way he should not go, when he is old 
he will be sure to come out all right. Never¬ 
theless we much prefer the older statement of 
the case, “Train up a child in the way he should 
go, and when he is old he will not depart 
from it.” 

We are “old fogy” enough to still believe 
that God’s Word contains some good advice. 
If we could grow up without any bias one way 
or the other, there might be a little show of 


CO-OPERATIVE PRODUCTION 


sense in such statements; but as we actually find 
things, the idea is utterly senseless. Evil in¬ 
fluences are exerted from the very dawning of 
consciousness. Demons of passion, impurity, 
and vice in a thousand forms reach out their 
long, gaunt, horrible hands to grasp that inno¬ 
cent, trusting little life and drag it down. That 
parent is little better than a demon who will 
not interpose strong arms, yea, who will not 
throw life itself between the sweet purity of 
that precious life and these worst of all enemies. 

God has set mankind in families in order 
that the young might be protected by the power 
and experience of their elders, and that the en¬ 
riching influence of association with other minds 
might have an opportunity to work out its best 
possible results. Because of these things, as 
well as for their own sakes, young men and 
women must needs be very careful about choos¬ 
ing those who are to help make home for them¬ 
selves and their children. Success or failure, 
joy or misery for all the future is wrapped up 
in that little decision which is often made so 


59 


HOW TO BE RICH 


triflingly,—as if the whole thing were a joke. 
But also in the every-day intercourse of life all 
kinds of people are of value to us if we know 
how to use them. I do not mean this expres¬ 
sion in the usual sense of the day—that is detest¬ 
able. Nothing can be more hideous in the sight 
of God than the dominant note in modern busi¬ 
ness. To care nothing for a man but for what 
I can squeeze out of him in dollars and cents; 
to force from him the largest possible amount of 
service, regardless of his physical, mental, or 
moral welfare, and give him in return, however 
excellent his services, the least possible amount 
of compensation,—is to set one’s self in direct 
opposition to the spirit and message of Jesus. 
He made, not what I can get out of a man, but 
what I can add to his life, the supreme test of 
what I am. We are well aware that a multi¬ 
tude of business men sneer at the mention of 
the precepts of Jesus, but we ought not to over¬ 
look this fact also, that “upon whomsoever this 
stone shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” 

Some men treat the whole matter of what 
60 


CO-OPERATIVE PRODUCTION 


Christ taught on these points with a supercilious 
air of condescension, as much as to say, “If 
Christ taught anything contrary to the ideas of 
business life, so much the worse for Christian¬ 
ity.” Let us never forget the truth, taught not 
only by the Word of God, but by the experience 
of the ages as well, that if modern business 
methods—try to shoulder the blame on “soulless 
corporations” or what you will—do not line up 
with the teachings and the spirit of Christ, so 
much the worse for modern business. Our civ¬ 
ilization is doomed as sure as God rules. 

We can, if we will, get from others far bet¬ 
ter things than material wealth. We can so use 
their life’s influence on ours as to be richer in 
character thereby. There are no greater riches 
in life than the precious companionship of kin¬ 
dred spirits. Sweetheart, lover, husband, wife, 
son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister, 
friend,—how much of the wealth of life is 
wrapped up in these. Yet it is well to remem¬ 
ber that our influence on each other depends 
not on our agreements alone, but also on our 
61 


HOW TO BE RICH 


disagreements. A friend who is just like me 
in all his thoughts and tastes may be agreeable 
to me because he flatters my vanity; but the 
friend who by his differences from me stirs me 
to better things is by far the more valuable. 

The secret of wealth from this source is in 
cultivating the society of those above us and in 
striving to emulate them. Whatever you do, 
do n’t drift. Choose your company, and do 
not allow circumstances to do it for you. 

Neither should we overlook the fact that 
even enemies are at times a blessing, as they 
point out the way for us to the best by revealing 
the flaws in our character and work, and thus 
stirring us to nobler endeavor. These con¬ 
tacts, even with the uncongenial and the evil, 
if we use them properly, are an important 
source of wealth not to be despised. Instead of 
objecting, we ought to rejoice in the fact that 
the rubs of life make us great. Even those 
who try to injure are co-operating with God’s 
plans for our enrichment, without realizing it. 
But let us drop at once any fellowship, how- 
62 


CO-OPERATIVE PRODUCTION 


ever valuable otherwise, that is exerting a dele¬ 
terious influence on the quality of our life. 

Rich is the life to which the words of Long¬ 
fellow are applicable: 

“When a great man dies, 

For years beyond our ken 
The light he leaves behind him lies 
Upon the paths of men.” 


63 






IV. Silent Partners 


5 


“All that mankind has done, thought, gained, or been, is 
lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books. The true 
university of these days is a collection of books.”— Carlyle . 


“All around the room my silent servants wait, 

My friends in every season bright and dim.” 

— Proctor. 

“A great poem is a fountain forever overflowing with the 
waters of wisdom and delight.”— Shelley. 


“And here the singer for his Art 
Not all in vain may plead ; 

The song that nerves a nation’s heart 
Is in itself a deed.” 

— Tennyson. 

“ For a jollie goode booke whereon to looke, 
Is better to me than golde.” 

—Old English Song. 


SILENT PARTNERS 


One of the richest sources of enjoyment to the 
human mind is afforded by the world of books. 
All the phases of life and thought and all the 
reaches of knowledge and of imagination are 
here put at the service of the one who is dis¬ 
posed to look for them. 

Books are real partners in the development 
of the latent wealth of our being. As Sir John 
Lubbock has well said: “A library is true fairy¬ 
land. Here we may read the most important 
histories, the most exciting volumes of travels 
and adventures, the most interesting stories, the 
most beautiful poems; we may meet the most 
eminent statesmen, poets, philosophers; benefit 
by the ideas of the greatest thinkers, and enjoy 
the grandest creations of human genius.” 

In books we have the accumulated wisdom, 
knowledge, and experience of the past laid up 
as in a storehouse. God has given us these as 

67 


HOW TO BE RICH 


He has all His other good gifts, in order that 
we may use them and by that use enrich life. 

Yet it is astonishing how many young men 
and women know nothing of good literature. 
Many scarcely read anything at all, and but a 
small part of those who do are in the habit of 
reading authors whose works stand high enough 
to rank as literature. 

If it is a sin to neglect and misuse our 
bodies, it is none the less a sin to ignore and 
starve the intellect or feed it on husks. As the 
intellect is the pathfinder to what is best along 
all the highways and byways of life, it is not 
only our duty, but to our highest interest from 
every point of view, to train it to the fullest 
possible extent. When we see how many neg¬ 
lect this privilege we do not wonder at their 
moral and spiritual degradation. When our in¬ 
tellectual and literary tastes range no higher 
than the records of the criminal and divorce 
courts as found in the average newspaper, it 
can not be expected that our lives be worth 
much from any lofty standpoint. 

68 


SILENT PARTNERS 


God has given us books, that we may gain 
thereby broader and more correct ideas of life 
and duty and do better work in every phase of 
our experience than would otherwise be possible 
to us. 

He who can read English holds the key to 
the untold treasures of the ages; and no differ¬ 
ence how poor he may be, if he has a library of 
good books he has in them a mine of wealth 
and joy. They bring to us the best thought of 
the greatest minds of the world, not only in our 
own time, but through all time. They enter¬ 
tain, instruct, guide, and lift us into higher 
realms of truth, goodness, and beauty. If we 
could have the privilege and honor of inviting 
to our homes, to converse with us, all the great 
thinkers of the world, how inestimable a privi¬ 
lege would we consider it. Yet we can go into 
our libraries and be at once admitted to the 
company of heroes, sages, and poets of all ages 
and nations. Some of them will relate to us the 
marvelous history and the beautiful legends and 
traditions of the past. Some will reveal to us 
69 


HOW TO BE RICH 


the secrets of nature and show us wonderful vi¬ 
sions of the future. Others will carry us over 
seas and continents, and spread out before us 
the charming scenery and the quaint manners 
and customs of the world. Still others unfold 
for us the will of God and human duty, and 
plant within our souls longings after the eternal 
“Beauty of Holiness.” Yet, how lightly do 
many esteem these privileges. Many an hour is 
wasted in common gossip and loafing, which 
might be improved by enjoying the sights of 
Europe with Bayard Taylor; or watching the 
thrilling scenes of the chariot races of old Rome 
with Wallace; or in contemplating the wonders 
of ancient civilization with Hutson or Rawlin- 
son; or with Mitchel soaring through the in¬ 
finite depths of heaven; with Lowell sucking 
the sweets of nature as he lies under the wil¬ 
lows; listening to Emerson discoursing on the 
philosophy of life; or to Milton singing of 
Paradise. 

To some these things mean nothing, as they 
have not cultivated their taste in this direction. 


70 


SILENT PARTNERS 


As the person who associates with the unculti¬ 
vated and vulgar can not enjoy the society of 
the educated and refined, so it is in literature. 
There is such a thing as caste in the world—in 
the great fundamentals of life—whether we like 
the idea or not. All the protests in the world 
can not change the fact. If we associate with 
the lower class and make them our bosom 
friends, our company will be spurned by the 
great writers who stand as high priests and 
kings in the domain of letters. 

As we would be careful in our selection of 
friends, so should we be of our books. We 
can not touch smut in either the social, moral, 
or mental worlds without being blackened by it. 
We can not walk in the society of either persons 
or books that are evil and not be tainted. As it 
is no satisfactory apology for our keeping com¬ 
pany with disreputable people to say that we 
like them, so it is not in our choice of books. 
Taste is something that can be, and ought to 
be cultivated. By practice Emerson may become 
more enjoyable vacation reading than the most 


7i 


HOW TO BE RICH 


empty-headed novelist of the hour, and the poets 
most delightfully refreshing and helpful. 

There are so many really good books to-day 
that we must select, and select very discrimi¬ 
natingly, to get the best for our time and effort. 
Only the books that are of the very first rank in 
their particular field should be allowed to oc¬ 
cupy our time. Get something of the best along 
as many different lines of culture and thought 
as possible, in order that life may be both broad¬ 
ened and deepened. 

But, whatever else we neglect, we can not 
safely omit the one Book which by common con¬ 
sent stands first in all the literature of the na¬ 
tions and the ages. “It contains,” as some one 
has said, “the most ancient history, the most 
interesting biography, the grandest philosophy, 
and the most sublime and beautiful poetry that 
ever was written.” 

Of the almost countless number of volumes 
that pour from the world’s presses to-day only 
a very few can be classed as real literature. 
The reader is at times bewildered as to what 


72 


SILENT PARTNERS 


he shall select from the mass,—as to what is 
really worth the reading. So many different 
standards of value are set up that he is at a 
loss to know how to form his conclusions. 

There is a class of books which deals with 
things and which have been called books of 
knowledge. There is another class, quite dif¬ 
ferent, which deals with life; these have been 
called books of power. The real books of 
power are the books which the world has agreed 
to call literature. These are the world’s strong¬ 
est and most refreshing springs of mental and 
spiritual being. 

Strange as it may seem to those who have 
experienced the power of the Word of God, 
there are those who would exclude the religious 
from any place in literature. They prate about 
“art for art’s sake,” and hold that the distin¬ 
guishing quality of literature consists in the 
power to give a certain kind of pleasure with 
which morality has nothing to do. Anything, 
therefore, which has in it a glimmer of moral 
or spiritual light which may dispel some of the 

73 


HOW TO BE RICH 


world’s darkness, arouses their special ire. In 
their “literary” moods such writing lies so far 
beneath their exalted vision as to be altogether 
unseen. A great many readers, if we are to 
judge by their practice, indorse this notion of 
what is literary. They are like the young lady 
who went to the theater recently to hear the 
dramatization of a popular book. In speaking 
of it to a friend she declared, enthusiastically: 
“It was just splendid. You know the book is 
a religious book, but of course the religion was 
left out.” So these critics would strike out of 
literature everything which is suggestive of spir¬ 
itual tone. 

In direct antagonism to all such theories we 
maintain that the infusion of the thought and 
life of the divine is absolutely essential to the 
production of the world’s greatest literature. 
The best critics agree that literature is life— 
life in its deepest and richest experiences. Em¬ 
erson says, “It is a record of the best thoughts.” 
Matthew Arnold says: “The end and aim of 
literature is a criticism of life. It is the inter- 


74 


SILENT PARTNERS 


pretation of the natural world and the moral 
world. A poetry of revolt against moral ideas 
is a poetry of revolt against life. A poetry of 
indifference toward moral ideas is a poetry of 
indifference toward life.” Mr. Mabie makes 
this comment, “Life realized, embodied, and in¬ 
terpreted is the first test of literature.” Recog¬ 
nizing the fact that the fountains of all action 
lie in the emotions of the heart, Professor Win¬ 
chester, whose work on literary criticism is recog¬ 
nized as one of the very best things of its kind, 
says, “Emotion is the characteristic and dis¬ 
tinguishing element in literature;” and “moral 
emotion is of higher literary value than purely 
sensuous or esthetic emotion.” 

Therefore, as literature is an interpretation 
of life, an interpretation of the human heart, 
put in the best possible form, how are we to 
exclude religion, which is one of the most uni¬ 
versal and powerful influences of life. As all 
phases of human experience are an integral part 
of the materials of literature, and he who leaves 
out any is narrow to just that extent, surely he 

75 


HOW TO BE RICH 


who would leave religion with its deepest, most 
vital, and also most beautiful of all the facts 
of the soul out of his consideration must be nar¬ 
row indeed. In the great truths about God, 
the moral order, and immortality lie the real 
secret and heart of the deepest and best life. 

It is true in all phases of human effort that 
in our work we give to the world an incarna¬ 
tion, more or less perfect, of the ideal which has 
stirred our souls. Of all those influences which 
have brought out the very best that is known 
to human nature, Christ stands in the supreme 
place of power. To say that these influences 
must have no place in literature would be to 
deny to it the most characteristic elements of 
what we claim to be its essential quality. 

A recent history of American literature se¬ 
verely criticises one of our well-known writers 
and is not willing to allow him any place at all 
in literature. The author is especially sarcastic 
in speaking of his poems on Bible themes— 
poems some of which, we venture to say, will 
live when even the name of the critic is for- 
76 


SILENT PARTNERS 


gotten. Because that critic may never have risen 
high enough in his own experience to have felt 
such aspirations as these poems express, is no 
reason why he should deny their reality. 
Others have risen to the sublimity of such things, 
and his narrowness and lack of experience are 
not to be the final measure of the breadth of 
the literature of human life. And so it is with 
the hymns of the Church—which an obscure 
professor of something somewhere has called 
“doggerel.” While a great many of the cheap 
song books of recent years have not been all that 
could have been desired, the great hymns of the 
Church have, many of them, been the product 
of the best thought in the crises of great lives, 
and belong to the world’s noblest and most vital 
literature. 

It has been said that there are two things 
back of every flower which are absolutely neces¬ 
sary to its beauty and fragrance—the earth and 
the sky. These delicate products of nature 
would not be the delightful things they are with¬ 
out the combined ministries of both. The up- 

77 


HOW TO BE RICH 


per sky is as essential as is the earth. So it 
is with the best in literature—it can not be pro¬ 
duced except the luminous beauty of the upper 
sky of spiritual truth rest upon it. One of Eng¬ 
land’s keenest judges of what is best in the liter¬ 
ary world makes this criticism of Heine: “Heine 
had all the culture of Germany; in his head fer¬ 
mented all the ideas of modern Europe. Yet, 
what have we got from him? A half result, 
for want of moral balance and of nobleness of 
soul and character. To be great a man must 
have something in him that can influence char¬ 
acter. He must have a noble and lofty charac¬ 
ter himself.” We can have no better guide than 
this in the selection of our books—choose those 
which are the expression of men and women of 
character. Every great book is the outgrowth 
and the expression of a great life. 

That one quality of literature is to give 
pleasure no one will deny; but, after all, this 
does not represent its highest value to mankind. 
Its greatest value is to be found in its teaching 
quality. We are well aware that there are those 
78 


SILENT PARTNERS 


who will deny that literature is, or ought to be, 
a teacher ; yet their denial does not change the 
truth. All students of literature are practically 
agreed that there are a few great books— 
which can perhaps be numbered on the fingers— 
which are of more worth to the world than all 
that remains of what we call literature. This 
is true because they teach life with its deepest 
truths, as all the other books of the world do 
not. Some of these great works of literature 
are not religious, in the ordinary sense of that 
term, yet they exhibit in their own lines of 
thought vital truth—and all truth is God’s 
thought. 

After all, then, we must agree that the chief 
virtue of literature lies in the power to impart 
to human life its great lessons. While prosaic 
moralizing and “preaching” have no place in 
literature, yet the development of the religious 
in life has. The richest music of the soul can 
not be produced without this phase of life. 

No minister who understands the depth and 
riches of his message can do his work and think 

79 


HOW TO BE RICH 


his thought without at times realizing that he 
has touched on the borderland of more beauti¬ 
ful poetry than ever was written. 

We believe the world’s best literature has 
not yet been written. When it is written it will 
be a revelation, such as the world has not yet 
seen, of the whole soul in all its relations and 
aspirations, with the religious—the divine—per¬ 
vading it all and holding its rightful first place. 

If literature be an interpretation of life, and 
religion represents that which is richest and best 
in life, we must accord it necessarily the highest 
place in literature. Otherwise we must with¬ 
draw its claim to first place in life. 

To sum up in a sentence the place of religion 
in literature, we know of no better statement of 
it than that of H. W. Mabie in his essay on 
Browning: “Abt Vogler touches his organ keys, 
and straightway an invisible temple springs, arch 
upon arch, in the vision of his imagination, and 
through it as through the Beautiful Gate of the 
older shrine he passes into the presence of One 
who is the Builder and Maker of houses not 


80 


SILENT PARTNERS 


made with hands. To reach that Presence, to 
make it real and abiding in the thoughts of men, 
is the true office and service of art.” 

We would not have any confine their read¬ 
ing to one book or to one aspect of life, how¬ 
ever great and good that one may be, but we 
plead for the best, and only the best. 

Different lines of reading fit into our differ¬ 
ent moods, and all in their way contribute their 
treasures to our life. 

Whether it be Dante’s vision of hell or St. 
John’s vision of heaven; Shelley’s “Arethusa” 
and “The Cloud” or Homer’s gory battlefields 
of Troy; Longfellow’s “Song of Hiawatha” or 
the Psalms of the Hebrew faith; the science of 
Darwin or the child-songs of Eugene Field,— 
all are woven, by life’s golden loom, into the 
glorious pattern of our lives. 

If we get all possible from these silent, un¬ 
assuming partners of our life we will have suc¬ 
ceeded in pouring into our being another of 
those enriching streams whose influence shall 
abide with us forever. 


6 







V. The Master Spirit 


“Be admonished not to strike leagues of friendship with 
cheap persons, where no friendship can be. Our impatience be¬ 
trays us into rash and foolish alliances which no God attends. 
By persisting in your path, though you forfeit the little you gain 
the great. You demonstrate yourself so as to put yourself out of 
the reach of false relations, and you draw to you the first born 
of the world,—those rare pilgrims whereof only one or tw'o 
wander in nature at once, and before whom the vulgar great 
show as spectres and shadows merely. ‘ The infallible index of 
true progress is found in the tone the man takes. Neither his 
age, nor his breeding, nor company, nor books, nor actions, nor 
talents, nor all together, can hinder him from being deferential 
to a higher spirit than his own. If he have found his center the 
Deity will shine through him.’ ”— Emerson. 


“ ’T is the weakness in strength that I cry for; my flesh that I 
seek 

In the Godhead. I seek and I find it. O Saul, it shall be. 

A Face like my face that receives thee ; a Man like to me, 

Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever: a Hand like this 
hand 

Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee. See the Christ 
stand.” — Browning. 


“ Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son 
Jesus Christ .”—1 John i: 3. 


THE MASTER SPIRIT 


To possess the best in music, art, or literature, 
one must fellowship with the masters. So if 
we would enjoy all the manifold riches that our 
being is capable of knowing and that life is able 
to yield, we must be not only on speaking terms 
but intimate in our companionship with the 
world’s Master Spirit. 

Both nature and the Book of God assure 
us that such an experience is within our reach. 
Approached in the right way, the knowledge 
and fellowship of God is the most attractive 
thing in the world. One writer said, long ago: 
“My Beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest 
among ten thousand. Yea, He is altogether 
lovely.” We have read that “no man can look 
upon His face and live,” and have perhaps mis¬ 
interpreted the meaning of those words. We 
have thought of Him as distant, forbidding, 

85 


HOW TO BE RICH 


awful. We should not so read His message. 
Paul speaks of Flim as “dwelling in light which 
no man can approach unto; whom no man hath 
seen or can see.” Yet in another place He tells 
us that we shall see Him, and that “face to 
face.” And He speaks of such experiences as 
the sum of all delights. 

In the same mood writes John: “We know 
that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, 
for we shall see Him as He is.” “Behold, the 
tabernacle of God is with men, and He will 
dwell with them, and they shall be His people, 
and God Himself shall be with them, and be 
their God. And God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes.” “They shall need no candle, 
neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth 
them light, and they shall reign for ever and 
ever.” Therefore we must interpret Him in a 
manner entirely different from what we had 
thought. It is like this: no one can gaze upon 
the beauty and glory of His face and see the full 
majesty and charm and perfection of His char¬ 
acter, and care to return to the common-place 
86 


THE MASTER SPIRIT 


and unattractive of this world. If His beauty 
should burst upon us through the fog and the 
mist, it would, like a mighty magnet, draw us 
at once and forever to himself. 

And why should it not be thus? There are 
things in this world in which the soul delights. 
Among these are power, majesty, beauty, purity. 
In our best moments we love them. 

We love power and admire its manifesta¬ 
tions. Even the street-corner loafer with his 
miscroscopic intellect admires physical power, 
and so he delights to talk of the prize-fighter 
and other such “fellows of the baser sort” who 
amuse him and his like by the display of brute 
force. This is the love of power in one of its 
very lowest forms; yet that love in one form 
or another is universal to human nature. 

The great characters who belong to the he¬ 
roic age of every nation were loved because 
they were men of power, able to perform un¬ 
usual and unheard of tasks. Is the same thing 
not true to-day? The deeds of the Spanish- 
American War, which so thrilled us and stirred 
87 


HOW TO BE RICH 


the patriotism and pride of the Nation, were 
unusual deeds of physical prowess, the like of 
which had scarcely been heard of in the history 
of the world. They seemed quite as wonderful 
as many of the miracles of Jewish history. 

We reverence the swish and rumble of the 
steam engine, and the power, both physical and 
mental, which it represents. 

Since we love and admire the man of might 
and the manifestations of power, why not look 
about us for expressions of this quality in the 
touch of the finger of God? “He looketh upon 
the earth, and it trembleth; He toucheth the 
hills, and they smoke.” Perhaps the most strik¬ 
ing manifestation of physical power in the world 
we inhabit is seen in the earthquake which turns 
rivers from their courses, sinks mountains into 
the sea, and swallows up great cities. But these 
displays of power are puny when compared with 
others of which we know out among the stars. > 
We are well aware that external displays 
of power are less wonderful than the Force be¬ 
hind them, and of which they are but the ex- 
88 


THE MASTER SPIRIT 


pression. We can not suppose for an instant 
that He who shakes the foundations of the 
earth, and opens up the yawning chasms of the 
sun, and swings millions of worlds in their or¬ 
bits, spends His power or exhausts Himself in 
so doing. Rather has He infinite reserve force. 
He who holds a sun dazzling in splendor in one 
hand has the steadiness of nerve, the delicacy of 
touch to fashion with the other the tender out¬ 
lines and the velvety surface of the petals of 
the rose. He suffers not the slightest exhaus¬ 
tion by the doing of these titanic tasks, but has 
the leisure at the same time to add with ex¬ 
quisite touch the color and fragrance to these 
flowers. 

Surely the lover and admirer of power can 
find his satisfaction in God. 

We love not only power, but majesty, which 
is the vesture or the garment of power. The 
darkness and the fierce aspect of the thunder¬ 
cloud speak to us of the power about to sweep 
the earth. The rugged and awful cliffs and 
chasms of the mountains and their mighty peaks 
89 


HOW TO BE RICH 


speak to us of the force that lifted them above 
the plain. One who lately had the experience 
tells us of the awe inspired by the grandeur of 
the scene as he lay under a clump of trees on 
the brink of the Grand Canon of the Colorado, 
looking down into that frightful chasm the 
greater part of a mile in depth. 

Whatever there is of the sublime and the 
majestic in the world speaks but of the greater 
glory and majesty of Him whose hand formed 
these awe-inspiring scenes. 

Again, how the world overflows with 
beauty! Out in the country the other evening, 
lying on the grass, a rich carpet of verdure 
spread out before me. Just beyond was a road 
with an old-fashioned worm fence on either 
side; then an orchard with a wavy bank of 
deeper green; beyond that, to the right, was a 
field of golden wheat perfectly ripened and 
ready for the reaper, and to the left a hillside 
covered with the light green of oats just burst¬ 
ing into head. Back of all, and running around 
the horizon, was an oak forest clothed in the 
90 


THE MASTER SPIRIT 


very richest of dark green. Above, the sky was 
rich with indescribable beauty. The sky itself 
shaded from deep blue overhead to pale opal 
at the horizon. The clouds above were white 
and soft and fluffy like a newly-shorn fleece, the 
whiteness changing gradually to a deep purple 
as they approached the sunset. Back of these, 
at a higher altitude, was another strata of 
clouds glowing in the most brilliant tints of 
gold. No painting could portray its loveliness. 
It was a scene worthy the vision of angels. It 
seemed to me the easiest thing in the world to 
make those bars of cloud a ladder by which 
to mount into the very presence chamber of the 
still more beautiful Being who had painted 
these inexpressible glories. 

How full the world is of like things to be 
enjoyed, if we have but eyes to behold them! 
The forest aisles, the mountains, the prairie, 
the sea, the flowers and gems of earth, the 
sweetness of human faces,—a thousand things 
of beauty and delight. As I have enjoyed these 
glorious things I have often thought how ex- 
9 1 


HOW TO BE RICH 


ceedingly beautiful must be the mind, the spirit, 
the soul of Him from whom all this loveliness 
is but an emanation. What esthetic taste, what 
an artist, in short, what a marvelously perfect 
Being must be that One who fashioned all these 
things! Surely we are ready to say with Solo¬ 
mon, “My Beloved is the chiefest among ten 
thousand, and altogether lovely.” 

The human heart pays homage to virtue and 
purity even when too degraded and abandoned 
to seek these qualities for itself. Look into the 
face of heaven’s blue and into the hearts of the 
flowers, and tell me if He who made them could 
be otherwise than pure. Read the Book, and 
tell me if He who gave it to the world could 
Himself be aught but holy. 

No critic can find other quality than white¬ 
ness in the character of Jesus. Some one has 
called Him the Poet of the Ages, because He 
had not only perfect power of self-expression, 
but because He was in His own personality the 
consummation of all virtue and goodness. No 
other companion can claim to be altogether 
92 


THE MASTER SPIRIT 


lovely. Jesus is, and He invites us into His 
fellowship. 

No other so glorious message ever fell upon 
the ears of men as that Almighty Wisdom and 
Power had stooped in the Father spirit of love 
to human ignorance and weakness. No finer 
lesson can be learned to-day, and none is more 
needed by the world than that of the Emmaus 
road. Familiar to us as the songs of child¬ 
hood is the story of the walk to that village 
among the Judean hills,—the discouraged dis¬ 
ciples, and the quiet of the evening along that 
country road; the encounter with the Stranger, 
and the conversation by the way; the invitation 
to tarry with them, the evening meal, and the 
revelation of His divine personality. A beauti¬ 
ful story it is, rich in suggestiveness for our 
own lives, enforcing the much-needed truth 
that at unexpected times and in unexpected ways 
the Master of Life speaks to the soul. 

“ One great Voice august 
Is speaking always in this world of men ; 

Speaking direct—no need of word or pen— 

Mystic and yet so clear. 

93 


HOW TO BE RICH 


“ Do you hear a Voice 
Calling sweetly, softly through the years; 

Through the wrong and sorrow, through the tears 
Of a wasted life ? 

“ Have you heard a Voice 
Resonant in times of hot, mad sin, 

When the chalice of the heart within 
Dripped with poisoned wine ? 

“ Have you heard a Voice 
Whispering sadly as the soul stoop’d down, 
Groveling to some baseness—its fair crown 
Dimm’d and blurr’d with shame ? 

“ Have you heard a Voice 
Calling gladly as the soul arose, 

Patient and strong, brave to endure all blows 
In this world’s strife ? 

Looking up to heaven with quiet smile, 

Feeling some omnipotence the while, 

Bearing up the life ? 

“ ’Tis the Voice of God, 

Sweet, appealing, as in Eden’s grove ; 

Sternly warning in His righteous love, 

’T is the Father’s Voice. 

“ Ay, the Father’s Voice, 

Calling ever, always, through the years, 

Through all wrong and sorrow—through all tears— 
Calling His children home.” 

God does not speak always in the same way. 
By diverse methods did He make known His 


94 


THE MASTER SPIRIT 


will to the fathers. So must the sons find it 
in their experience. 

He spoke to His people in the olden time 
by means of the significant things in their na¬ 
tional history and the important events in their 
own lives, by different methods of approach 
and through various types of men. 

He could not be known by any fixed and 
familiar garb. His messages came to them in 
the crises of their national life, as at the Red 
Sea and at Jericho, like as to us they came at 
Saratoga, Gettysburg, and Manila; they were 
heard in the sacrifices of their tabernacle and 
temple ritual, and in the clarion voice of the 
prophets calling their brethren to the highlands 
of God. He spoke to Moses in the mighty 
thunderings of Sinai, and to Abraham in the 
ominous mutterings and the smoke and stench 
of Sodom; while to Elijah, the vehement whirl¬ 
wind prophet, He came in the still small voice 
after the earthquake, the tempest, and the fire. 
In awful terror did He come to Ahab, and to 
Belshazzar in the handwriting on the wall; 

95 


HOW TO BE RICH 


while like a benediction from the skies and as 
the dew from heaven did the vision of the New 
Jerusalem descend upon the gentle soul of the 
beloved disciple on the barren shores of Patmos. 
To Paul He came in dazzling light too strong 
for human vision, and to Zacharias in the dark¬ 
ness of a supernatural night. 

Through radically different types of men 
did the heavenly Voice find its way to human 
hearts. It came in the culture and learning of 
Moses, Solomon, and Paul; and in Elijah and 
John the Baptist with their coarse attire and 
the blunt manners of the wilderness. Through 
the zephyr-like spirit of a John and the ocean 
storms of Peter’s tempestuous soul. 

How foolish the man who looks for slavish 
uniformity in an infinite God dealing with a 
many-sided and variety-loving humanity created 
in His own image! Yes, God spake to men in 
the olden time. And not the least precious of 
those communings was that of the wayside fel¬ 
lowship of friend with friend, as on the Em- 
maus road. But the larger truth for us lies in 
9 6 


THE MASTER SPIRIT 


the fact that God did not cease to speak to 
man when the fathers passed away, or when the 
Son of God went back to the eternal mansions. 
He said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
the end of the world.” 

“ God is not dumb, that He should speak no more. 

If thou hast wanderings in the wilderness 
And findest not Sinai—’t is thy soul is poor ; 

There towers the mountain of the Voice no less, 

Which who so seeks shall find,—but he who bends 
Intent on Manna still and mortal ends, 

Sees it not,—neither hears its thundered lore.” 

Musing along life’s way we find much to 
enjoy in nature, literature, art, music, worship, 
and the routine of our daily work. Through 
all the experiences of life God speaks. These 
are but streams from the eternal fountain that 
lead up to their source, as rivers traced back 
lead up to their springs in the mountain heights 
far above us. If any of these things ravish us, 
how much more must He who excels in glory! 

A thousand-fold more blessed for us will it 
be if, loving any of these humble or exalted 
sources of enjoyment, we follow the voice that 
7 97 


HOW TO BE RICH 

so thrills till it leads us to the foot of God’s 
throne. 

Emerson says in the introduction of one of 
his books: “The foregoing generations beheld 
God face to face; we, through their eyes. Why 
should not we also enjoy an original relation to 
the universe ? Why should not we have a poetry 
and philosophy of insight, and not of tradition, 
and a religion by revelation to us, and not the 
history of theirs?” 

We should have, and we can have if we will. 
Let us not treat lightly life’s wayside experi¬ 
ences. Here often we will find our hours of 
richest fellowship with God. How unexpect¬ 
edly we often meet Him along life’s dusty high¬ 
road or in the evening walk as we loiter by the 
way. 

Some one has said, “Life is fed by unseen 
streams quite as fully and constantly as by those 
streams whose courses science traces with ad¬ 
mirable accuracy and precision.” 

Starting for a long trip on the train on a 
disagreeable day in March, I first went into a 
98 


THE MASTER SPIRIT 


bookstore and bought a book. Whirling along 
on the train, as a heavy blanket of wet snow 
fell outside, I read a delightful description of 
the bursting into bloom of an apple orchard. 
I could see the clear blue of the sky with its 
white clouds, and smell the fragrance of ex¬ 
panding buds. With things like these, and the 
thoughts they suggested, I enjoyed as rich a 
heaven in that railway car as I ever expect to 
experience this side of the reality. I shall long 
remember that day, because my heart indeed 
burned within me as I talked with God. 

Music can touch all the chords of life and 
lift the soul above that which is material as few 
other things can. 

Sitting with closed eyes and attentive ear 
one Saturday afternoon in Carnegie Music Hall, 
listening to the notes as they swelled and flowed 
from the great organ, my soul seemed swayed 
by a divine inspiration. It seemed to me that 
I caught a thrill of melody breathed out 
through heaven-tuned instruments from a band 
of angels gathered on the banks of the River of 
99 


HOW TO BE RICH 


Life. Then came a deep, subdued, yet sublime 
burst of music from off somewhere among those 
shining mansions. Then the two companies of 
musicians seemed to approach each other, and 
their music to blend in perfect harmony. And 
then came a bewildering flow of silvery sound as 
though one of the chariots of God were return¬ 
ing from the conflict with the powers of dark¬ 
ness in triumph, making music as it came up the 
steeps. I could hear it as it came up from the 
depths below, the notes of melody swelling out 
clearer and sweeter upon the air; up through 
the gates of pearl, and over the streets of gold 
glittering in the full blaze of the Sun of Right¬ 
eousness, until its soul-thrilling melody blended 
before the throne with the triumphant strains 
of the assembled hosts of heaven. Ere the 
music of one triumph had ceased there came 
another and another, each received with the 
same glad welcome, until my heart overflowed 
and my eyes filled with tears. 

In one of those chariots was borne the res¬ 
cued soul of one who had on earth possessed a 


ioo 


THE MASTER SPIRIT 


wonderful mind, and had swayed multitudes by 
the power of his genius. In another was the 
immortal nature of one who had received great 
wealth, and who had enjoyed every advantage 
of culture and refinement the world could 
offer. In another was borne one who had 
gone far astray, and had been brought back 
by a gentle touch of the Savior’s loving hand. 
In still another was a little white-robed figure 
with radiant face, hardly recognizable at first— 
a little waif, but a moment ago with ragged 
dress and shivering form and tear-stained face, 
crushed to death in a city street, to be buried 
in a nameless grave—but now recognized and 
received by the great loving Savior, who never 
forgets the least or the poorest of His children. 
And the music of one welcome was just as sweet 
and just as wonderful as that of any of the 
others. 

I did not know, nor did it much concern me, 
what that music meant to anybody else that day, 
but such was its message to me. 

It was not a studied affair, but came sponta- 


IOI 


HOW TO BE RICH 


neously, without any effort on my part, as I 
listened to the notes of that organ. As I left 
the room, after the music had ceased, I realized 
the power of music as never before, and I felt 
that God Himself had spoken to my soul. 

I knew a young man some little time ago 
to visit Washington. Among other places of 
interest he went to the Corcoran Gallery of 
Arts. The thing which most impressed him 
there was Powers’ “Greek Slave.” That beau¬ 
tiful piece of sculpture, which to some might 
have meant a very different thing or nothing at 
all, was to him a clear call to pure life. A 
beautiful girl, seized by heartless soldiery, 
stripped of her clothing, her wrists and ankles 
in chains—a girl as delicate and sweet as a new- 
blown flower—it stirred all the chivalry of his 
being; and he said, deep down in his soul, “The 
brute who would offer any indignity to that fresh 
young life or who would dare even in thought 
to befoul such angel-like purity ought to be in¬ 
stantly scorched by the withering fires of the 
lowest hell.” Through the appreciation of that 


102 


THE MASTER SPIRIT 


work of art God had spoken to his soul with 
a mighty voice. 

The capacity to see in other souls the quali¬ 
ties of purity and beauty that stir the deepest 
emotions, is a mark of our relationship to God 
Himself. 

Who that has the soul of a man can read 
“The Gardener’s Daughter” of Tennyson and 
see that figure 

“ Gowned in pure white— 

Suffused with blushes,—neither self possessed 
Nor startled, but betwixt this mood and that 
Divided into a graceful quiet,” 

as she holds aloft the rosebush blown down by 
the gale, herself as delightful and charming as 
those dewy roses, and not feel that God was 
speaking a message of power and of larger life 
to the soul of the man who looked upon and 
loved her? 

So, too, God speaks in the holy influences of 
the sanctuary when we come not to be seen or 
to see, or to make ourselves in any way con¬ 
spicuous, but to listen in quietness for His voice. 

103 


HOW TO BE RICH 


As we walk by the wayside of our daily 
calling and do the drudgery of even uncongen¬ 
ial tasks, He speaks to us through our work 
if we do it well. 

Thus it is in a multitude of ways that God 
speaks to us through the channels of our ex¬ 
perience and from every angle of our many- 
sided being. Along all these lines of the de¬ 
velopment of our God-given nature—the phys¬ 
ical, intellectual, social, esthetic, and spiritual— 
we ought to so cultivate ourselves as to enjoy 
these communings with the Divine. 

God often speaks strongly to us from His 
Word, and through the great and striking ex¬ 
periences of life; yet not always along the high¬ 
ways of spiritual life alone, but in the byways 
of our being does the Lord of life appear, to 
bring His messages of inspiration. It is in the 
unexpected wayside experiences that we often 
enjoy our most precious spiritual feasts. These 
are the voices of God causing our souls to burn 
and flame within us as thus unperceived He 
talks with us by the way. Some never hear 
104 


THE MASTER SPIRIT 


these voices at all. They can hear God only in 
the thunder and the earthquake, and yet have the 
strange hallucination that they are the only peo¬ 
ple who ever do hear Him. While the thunder 
rolls and crashes through the spiritual heavens, 
they are far up among the Delectable Mountains, 
but in the routine of everyday life they are apt 
to fail because they are not able to hear the 
voice of God softly whispering in the silences, 
and in the rustle of the leaves in the evening 
wind. They are like those men who served in 
artillery regiments in time of war, and have 
listened so long to the roar of the cannon that 
they have become deaf to other sounds. Even 
in the services of God’s house, if the tremors 
of the earthquake and the splitting of timbers is 
not heard, they go away and lament that God 
was not there; when, perhaps, the very air was 
vibrant with the divine presence which their 
tumultuous natures had not the refinement and 
delicacy of spiritual touch to perceive. 

No wonder if such people seem to excel 
in spiritual wisdom and holiness during the re- 
105 


HOW TO BE RICH 


vival season, and then grovel in sin, doing the 
dirty work of the devil during the dull season 
of the summer months. Such folks need the 
sincere pity and sympathy of the truly spiritual- 
minded. 

That kind of church life which tends to de¬ 
velop this type of character is seriously lack¬ 
ing in the qualification for Christian leadership. 
Only now and then does God speak to us in 
startling fashion, but He is constantly walking 
with us in the humble and unsuspected places, 
if we but have our finer sensibilities atuned to 
His touch. 

Education—the drawing out and cultiva¬ 
tion of every faculty and power of our being— 
is just this atuning of the soul to a larger ca¬ 
pacity for divine fellowship. And he who neg¬ 
lects any possible enlargement of his life in any 
of these directions is to that extent blocking the 
avenues of divine approach to his soul. He is 
making impossible the wayside talks with Jesus 
along that particular road. 

Let us make it our practice to take evening 
106 


THE MASTER SPIRIT 


walks along all those highways and byways fre¬ 
quented by the Master, so that we may the more 
often catch the thrill of His presence, and re¬ 
joice in the rich revelations of His love. 

We crave these experiences. Coming in 
one night from his work, a father heard his 
little boy, three or four years of age, crying up¬ 
stairs. He wondered what the little fellow 
could be crying for, as he had been given a good 
supper and was comfortably tucked into his 
warm bed with the light still burning. Bidding 
him to go to sleep the father sat down to read. 
As the little one still continued to cry, he laid 
down his book and went up. He asked him 
what was wrong, and if he wanted anything. 
The reply was, as a pair of little arms crept 
about his neck, “I just wanted you, papa.” 

So in our loneliness of soul we often cry, 
“O Father, it is Thee, only Thee, and Thy 
companionship that we want.” We should ever 
remember that Jesus is walking with us. We 
only need the enlarged vision, the enrichment of 
being which will enable us to discover Him as 
107 


HOW TO BE RICH 


He walks by our side. Let us not say of any 
time or place, “God was not there;” but let us 
rather say in all truthfulness, “I have been so 
lacking in spiritual capacity that I was there, 
and Jesus was there, and I knew it not.” 

There were doubtless other people on the 
road to Emmaus, but only those two disciples 
discovered the Master there. 

And shall fellowship with God not mean 
the largest possible things for us, as well as a 
most delightful fellowship ? That it should not 
prove to be so is unthinkable. Familiar per¬ 
haps, but none the less suggestive, is this incident 
of one of the world’s great musicians: He en¬ 
tered one day a room in London where a group 
of fashionable people were gathered at an auc¬ 
tion. Among other things, an old, greasy, 
rather disreputable looking violin was offered 
for sale. Nobody seemed to want it, and the 
auctioneer was about to give up his efforts, when 
the musician entered. As he saw what was be¬ 
ing offered for sale he pushed his way through 
the crowd and reached for the instrument. He 
108 


THE MASTER SPIRIT 


had recognized its worth, and with fondness 
and affection he handled it as if it were his own 
little child. He put it to his ear and listened, 
and then, reaching for the bow, began to play. 
As he played the noise was stilled, everybody lis¬ 
tened, tears began to trickle down their cheeks, 
and as he closed he was greeted with thunders 
of applause. Some one whispered, “Paga¬ 
nini,” and so it was—the great master of the 
violin. 

Others had that day handled that instru¬ 
ment, but only he could bring out its greatness. 
So with my life. Only the Master who gave it 
being, and who knows every string, and the 
music of which it is capable, can bring out all 
its glorious melodies. Why shall I not give it 
to Him and allow Him to have the right of 
way with it? Rich, indeed, is the soul that 
can have these communings with the Master 
Spirit. 

“ Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, 

And spirit with spirit can meet, 

Closer is He than breathing, 

And nearer than hands and feet.” 

IO9 


HOW TO BE RICH 


Blessed is that life that is lived in such 
nearness to Him that the soul can say: 

“ He speaks to me in every wind, 

He smiles from every star ; 

He is not deaf to me, nor blind, 

Nor absent, nor afar. 

“ His hand that shuts the flowers to sleep, 

Each in its dewy fold, 

Is strong my feeble life to keep, 

And competent to hold. 

“ I can not walk in darkness long, 

My light is by my side ; 

I can not stumble or go wrong 
While following such a guide. 

“ He is my stay and my defense ; 

How shall I fail or fall ? 

My helper is Omnipotence, 

My ruler ruleth all.” 


IIO 


VI. The Element of Personality 


“ Man, as a finite creator, images the Infinite One ; he has, 
in his poor degree, the same reason, imagination, perception of 
beauty and fitness, and the same power of choice.”— Parker. 


“ I should have done no good, if I had been under the 
necessity of conforming to the notions of another person.” 

— Napoleon. 


“ O, if it gush not from thine inmost soul, 

Thou hast not won the life-restoring draught.” 

— Goethe. 


“ It matters not how strait the gate, 

How charged with punishment the scroll ; 

I am the master of my fate, 

I am the captain of my soul.” 

— W. E. Henley. 


*' And being let go, they went to their own company.” 

—Acts. 


THE ELEMENT OF PERSONALITY 


What we get out of life depends not on our 
surroundings, but on our personality. To have 
the sources of life’s true and real wealth pointed 
out to us does not make us rich, any more than 
we gain a fortune by riding through the coun¬ 
try in a railway car and having a friend point 
out to us the location of its gold and silver mines. 
No matter how rich the feast spread before us, 
if we partake not of it, the vital forces of our 
being are no more benefited by those things 
than if they had never been. We must acquire 
for ourselves the things that are worth while, 
before we can be enriched thereby. The fact 
of their existence, and their possession by others 
does not make them ours. It depends upon our 
own choice and our own effort whether we ob¬ 
tain them or not. 

There are those who would have us believe 
113 


8 


HOW TO BE RICH 


that there are other influences, such as heredity 
and environment, which decide for us what life 
shall mean, but not so. It is true that these 
things do have their influence, but such influ¬ 
ences are not the dominant and deciding factors 
in the scale of being. After all has been said 
that can be said for these things, still we are 
like the water-lilies growing in the Concord 
River, which Hawthorne so beautifully de¬ 
scribes in one of his sketches: “The yellow 
lily spreads its broad, flat leaves on the mar¬ 
gins, and the fragrant, white pond-lily just so 
far from the river’s brink that you can not 
grasp it save at the hazard of plunging in. It 
is a marvel whence this perfect flower derives 
its loveliness and perfume, springing as it does 
from the black mud over which the river 
sleeps, and where lurk the slimy eel and the 
speckled frog and the mud-turtle, whom con¬ 
tinual washings can not cleanse. It is the very 
same black mud out of which the yellow lily 
sucks its obscene life and noisome odor. Thus 
we see, too, in the world, that some persons as- 
114 


THE ELEMENT OF PERSONALITY 


similate only what Is ugly and evil from the 
same moral circumstances that supply good and 
beautiful results—the fragrance of celestial 
flowers—to the daily life of others.” 

Some time ago on a delightful summer 
morning I had the pleasure of strolling along 
the lane leading down past the “Old Manse,” 
where those sketches were written, to the river 
and the bridge, where that opening conflict of 
the Revolution was fought, and where sleep the 
first British soldiers who fell in that struggle. 
A short distance above the bridge I discovered 
some of those lilies, and after an interesting 
experience in which I barely escaped a plunge 
in the river I obtained one of them—one of the 
purest and loveliest things that grow, and doubly 
prized because of its associations both historic 
and literary. I thought how perfectly that 
plant had taken into its being just those elements 
from which it could extract beauty and perfume, 
rejecting all others. 

So there are in nature everywhere organisms 
which bring out the precious things that are 

n 5 


HOW TO BE RICH 


worth while from the same environment out of 
which others suck poison. I go into my garden 
and find the onion and the rose growing side by 
side. In the pasture one animal produces bristles 
and another wool. In the branches of the mul¬ 
berry the cankerworm ruins that which another 
turns into silk. The muck of the swamp pro¬ 
duces either the sickening odor of the skunk cab¬ 
bage, or the soothing fragrance of the violet. 
The soil of the thicket yields the poison hem¬ 
lock and the delicious syrup of the raspberry. 
Because of these facts I see it is not so much my 
problem, as it is what I bring to that problem 
that counts. 

Two men in precisely the same environment 
will produce results in their lives which are di¬ 
rect opposites of each other. A minister one day 
tried to induce two young coal miners to live bet¬ 
ter lives. They said they would do so were it 
not for the fact that it was their work to drive 
mules in the mine, and no man could drive a 
mule in a coal mine and live a Christian life at 
the same time. The minister told them that 
ii 6 


THE ELEMENT OF PERSONALITY 


he had a better reason himself than that for not 
living a right life, for he dealt with people who 
were often worse than mules to manage, al¬ 
though supposed to be vastly superior. 

The fact is, we all live under difficult condi¬ 
tions which tax our powers to the utmost. The 
fact that we live in hard places is no excuse 
whatever for our failure to make the best out of 
life. We expect that of each other. How 
others criticise us if we do not do well; and how 
hard we are on them if they do not measure up 
to our highest thought for themselves. If such 
a life is impossible in a hard place, why do we 
punish the criminal? The fact that we do 
so, however degrading may have been his en¬ 
vironment, shows our real position on this point 
—that we are conscious of the fact that the 
crucial point is in man himself, and not in his 
surroundings. God expects good of us under all 
conditions. The Bible, the keenest and most 
perfect delineator of human character the lit¬ 
erature of the world has ever known, is insistent 
in its requirements on this point. 

117 


HOW TO BE RICH 


Our own conscience, moreover, approves as 
right both the demand of men and of God that 
we make good, and not evil, out of our oppor¬ 
tunity in life. Experience, moreover, reinforces 
our convictions in this matter, with positive 
proof that such lives have been and can be lived; 
that the human lily can, like its fellow of the 
vegetable world, produce out of the blackness 
and the slime the whiteness and fragrance of a 
pure life. 

A study of the character of Joseph and 
many of the other characters of Scripture are 
convincing on this point. We are told that there 
were saints even in Caesar’s household—that den 
of all infamy. 

Read the story of Jerry McAuley, born 
and reared to a life of crime, his environment 
the worst conceivable, and yet through the com¬ 
ing of a new impulse into his soul living ever 
afterward a stainless life in the midst of the 
worst conditions the world knows anything of 
to-day. No careful student of human life can 
question our conclusion on this point. 

118 


THE ELEMENT OF PERSONALITY 


Character is the mold into which things are 
run, and not things the mold into which char¬ 
acter is run. What though the very laws of 
nature seem to be against you? Learn how to 
use them and they will aid your cause. 

Ignoring the law of gravitation and trying 
to act independently of it, a crazy man may 
walk out of a twentieth story window and have 
his life crushed out, and every bone in his body 
broken as he is dashed to the pavement below. 
By recognizing this law and carefully directing 
our actions with reference to it, we may so con¬ 
duct ourselves as to avoid ever having a seri¬ 
ous fall even on an icy pavement. By so doing 
we submit to be controlled by this important 
law which may seem at times to be working 
against us. 

There is still another possible relation which 
we may sustain-to this law. The eagle under¬ 
stands it better than we, and so adjusts himself 
to it that he rises into the pure air and eternal 
sunshine beyond the highest mountain peaks, 
far above the clouds and storms that rage be- 
119 


HOW TO BE RICH 


neath. Man, who has long sought to do the 
same, when he can use this law as does the 
eagle, will have achieved the mastery of the 
air, not independently of law, but because of it. 
Did the bird break the law he would fall; did 
he merely submit to it he could no more fly than 
we have been able to do in the past; but because 
he understands how to use it, it becomes a 
power not to bind him down, but to lift him up 
and give him the thrill of liberty and of mastery. 

In violation of law the child puts his hand 
into the fire and is burned. Then for a time 
he submits to the law of which he has so pain¬ 
fully become conscious, and avoids the fire. 
Man in the primitive ages betook himself to the 
warm parts of the earth, and later, even in the 
time of Rome’s power, went to bed at dark to 
avoid the necessity of using fire for light. To-day 
he uses this power, converts it into another form 
of force and sets it to doing all sorts of drudgery 
for him—lifting weights he could not budge 
himself; running his machinery; making for him 
the necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life; 


120 


THE ELEMENT OF PERSONALITY 


and carrying him across continents and oceans 
at a rate he never dreamed of a hundred years 
ago. 

Franklin was likely to lose his life by sending 
his kite up into a thundercloud and drawing 
down the lightnings to himself. But he had a 
great idea back of his experiment. Through the 
ages man had been submitting to and standing 
in awe of this strange power; but to-day we do 
not seek merely to escape its perils; we catch it 
to light our homes and streets, ring our door 
bells, run our cars, and carry our messages as on 
the wings of light to the ends of the earth. 

In the wonderful achievements of our pres¬ 
ent-day civilization God is giving us just a little 
insight into the glorious liberty of His children 
—a liberty which comes not from rebellion or 
mere submission, but from doing in obedience to 
His laws. Liberty through law is written deep 
in the very structure of all created things. Only 
that one who has so mastered the intellectual 
life that its laws are to him easy stepping stones 
to the truth, and thus a source of power to lift 


I 2 I 


HOW TO BE RICH 


him above his fellows, knows what intellectual 
freedom means. 

So likewise it is in the moral and the spirit¬ 
ual. God’s laws and the truths of His kingdom 
are not burdens, but sources of power to those 
who accept them and have the sense and grace 
to use them aright. The commands of God 
are not chains to bind, but the wooings of In¬ 
finite Love luring us to the heights. It does not 
mean bondage to be a child of God. Our Father 
gives us His laws not to enforce His authority, 
but because in His infinite wisdom He knows the 
way by which alone we can rise to power, and in 
His measureless love He discloses to us the 
secret. 

The devil is keeping many of us in bondage 
to-day by means of that old threadbare lie that 
the Lord is trying to lay a burden upon us. He 
is, on the contrary, endeavoring to lift us to 
freedom by making us masters of truth and law 
instead of their slaves. 

Why is it that when we can enjoy the glory 
and liberty of children of God we still persist 


122 


THE ELEMENT OF PERSONALITY 


in digging in the mire, with our minds and 
hearts open toward the earth instead of toward 
heaven? Why should I be ruled by those 
things which are against conscience and reason 
and my own best judgment? The power is in 
my hands to do what I will, if I choose to use it. 
As some one has said, “The world is waiting 
to see what God may not make out of that life 
that is wholly given to Him.” 

A writer in one of our most thoughtful 
magazines said recently: “The heresy of an 
irresponsible despotism over man’s moral choices 
must not, shall not, be permitted to blind us to 
our responsibility for our destiny. This glorious 
but awful responsibility—to forget which all 
sorts of opiates have been invented, all delusions 
devised—is well set forth in a rare bit of verse 
quoted to young men for the formation of 
character: 

“ ‘ One ship drives east and another drives west 
With the selfsame winds that blow ; 

’T is the set of the sails, and not the gales, 

That settles the way they go. 


123 


HOW TO BE RICH 


“ ‘ Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate, 

As we voyage along through life ; 

’T is the set of the soul that decides the goal, 

And not the calm or the strife.’ ” 

All power is not in our hands, but the rud¬ 
der which will direct our vessel into the cur¬ 
rents of power is in our control. We can direct 
our little craft into either the equatorial or polar 
currents as we will. 

That young man or woman who is vile and 
goes to the depths, has deliberately chosen to be 
vile. As in every nation, so in every soul “God 
has not left Himself without witness.” The 
great scales of the United States mint are so 
accurately adjusted that a hair or a pencil mark 
on a sheet of white paper will tilt the balance. 
So in the scales of life the human will, the free 
choice of the soul, determines the result. 

Not only should this regal, Godlike quality 
of the soul be recognized and our life adjusted 
in harmony therewith, but we should honor the 
peculiar quality of our own being—our per¬ 
sonal equation as it were. Paul said to the Cor¬ 
inthians, “Now hath God set the members 
124 


THE ELEMENT OF PERSONALITY 


every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased 
Him.” This is the statement of a physical fact 
to illustrate a spiritual truth. The eye is a very 
much specialized organ, adapted in a wonder¬ 
ful manner to one particular use, and to that 
only. So is the ear, and the hand, and the foot, 
and every other part of the human mechanism. 

Each one has its own special work to do, yet 
in the very doing of that work in its own way 
it adds to the efficiency of every other; and the 
body can not do its full work without every one 
of them. This fact sets forth beautifully a cor¬ 
responding truth in the intellectual, social, and 
spiritual realms. God has set us in the world, 
in the Church, in society, “as it hath pleased 
Him”—and it hath pleased Him to make us all 
to differ one from another. 

The editor of a certain religious paper said 
not long ago that the preacher who would ap¬ 
pear in the pulpit in a shirtwaist would be a 
suitable candidate for the lunatic asylum. 

We do not repeat the statement for the sake 
of either advocating or condemning the par- 
125 


HOW TO BE RICH 


ticular thing here referred to, but to say this: 
One of the most senseless things the world 
ever saw is the thing known as fashion, when 
slavishly followed,—the trifling, absurd, woeful 
species of insanity that stands aghast if every 
man’s coat is not cut after the same pattern, and 
every woman’s hat is not adjusted at precisely 
the same angle. Personal taste and comfort 
should rule in such matters, and people be al¬ 
lowed some individuality without having to run 
the risk of being called crazy. 

May the time be not distant when the world 
will have too much sense and independence to be 
made uncomfortable and ugly because Dame 
Fashion says so. God hasten the day when the 
old lady in her dotage will have to go out of 
business. The same curse rests to some extent 
upon the educational world,—the tendency to 
run all minds into the same channel. 

So much science, so much mathematics, so 
much dead languages must be ground out by 
every student if he would hope to graduate. A 
few years ago a young man in one of our best 
126 


THE ELEMENT OF PERSONALITY 


schools dared to assert his individuality in these 
matters, and accordingly spent a large part of his 
time in the library studying those things which 
suited the bent of his mind—at the expense, 
sometimes, of the disagreeable things in his 
course. As a result, when one of his professors 
was asked what kind of a student he was, the 
reply was, “Poor, poor, very poor.” Yet that 
young man has now stood for years at the 
head of one of the great educational institu¬ 
tions of the country, and is recognized as one 
of the greatest platform orators of the world 
to-day. 

The most monotonous thing in the world 
would be the accomplishment of just what so¬ 
ciety wants and is struggling for—the slavish 
following of custom in dress, and habits of 
thought and expression. As the Sage of Con¬ 
cord well says: “Society everywhere is in con¬ 
spiracy against the manhood of every one of its 
members.” “Insist on yourself; never imitate. 
Your own gift you can present every moment 
with the cumulative force of a whole life’s culti- 


127 


HOW TO BE RICH 


vation; but of the adopted talent of another 
you have only an extemporaneous half posses¬ 
sion.” 

Let us not be afraid of originality; of as¬ 
suming our own God-given niche in the world’s 
plan. A carload of sewer-pipe may be run in 
the same mold, but a carload of men ought not 
so to be. One of the most abominable sights 
our civilization affords is a row of company 
houses—all built on the same plan, painted 
with the same kind of paint, and filthy with 
the same kind of dirt. 

Instead of being a thing to be gotten rid of, 
our individuality, if handled properly, is one 
of the most valuable assets of our being. We 
find no mechanical reproduction of any type in 
nature. The leaves, the blades of grass, even 
“two peas in a pod,” differ; and so with our 
larger life. There are no “all round men” as 
there are no all around members of the body,— 
those that can do the work of all. There are, 
it is true, those who can come nearer doing this 
than others, yet even those persons make a 
128 


THE ELEMENT OF PERSONALITY 


failure of life just in proportion as they get 
away from the work which they can do best. 

Let us then have the faith and courage to 
believe in ourselves; to believe in our oppor¬ 
tunity, however small it may seem; and to be¬ 
lieve that God has given us a chance which we 
may use as nobly and as successfully as any 
other man or woman who ever lived. 

As the air and the sunshine belong to all, so 
nature, friends, books, and the Spirit of God, 
the primary sources of life’s real and abiding 
wealth, are within the reach of all, to pour 
their riches into our bosom if we will it so. Let 
us never forget that our own personality is the 
factor of supreme importance in determining 
what we shall make out of life. 


9 


129 


I 


VII. Life’s Decisions 


“ There is a tide in the affairs of men 

Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune.” 

— Shakespeare. 


** Where shall I grasp thee, infinite nature, where ?” 

— Goethe. 


“ Except a man be born again, he can not see the Kingdom 
of God.”— Jesus. 


“ In full and glad surrender we give ouselves to Thee, 
Thine utterly and only and evermore to be. 

O Son of God, who lovest us, we will be Thine alone, 
And all we are and all we have shall henceforth be Thine 
own.” — Havergal. 


LIFE’S DECISIONS 

Since we are to determine for ourselves what 
use we make of life’s treasures, and whether we 
shall be enriched thereby or not, it is important 
that we take our bearings to discover where we 
are at. 

We all at some time come to have a Garden 
of Eden experience. The Bible account of the 
fall is repeated in the life of every man and 
woman. We need not hunt elsewhere for proofs 
of the truth of that part of the Bible records,— 
we have it written deep in our own life story. 
The time came in our development as in the ex¬ 
perience of our first parents, when we became 
conscious that there was a right and a wrong 
way. There came a tempter who said, It does 
not matter if you do violate your own best judg¬ 
ment and the voice of God in small things; you 
133 


HOW TO BE RICH 


will even be wiser and have more knowledge and 
experience by so doing. 

Restraint seems unreasonable. The evil 
thing seems desirable for our physical nature; a 
pleasure to the eyes; desirable to make one wise 
—the sowing of wild oats is a valuable expe¬ 
rience. How would it have been possible to 
more accurately transcribe our own experiences ? 
Yet how forcibly a little later are we convinced 
that the whole argument is a lie. 

We learn from sad experience that physical 
indulgence brings weakness, disease, and death; 
the seemingly attractive things are sometimes 
serpents in disguise; and the wisdom acquired is 
much better learned, if it must be known, 
through somebody else’s mistakes rather than 
our own. 

In my boyhood I was one day doing some 
work in assisting my father about the yard. 
While helping him carry something across the 
grass I saw what seemed to me to be an unusu¬ 
ally large and beautiful butterfly. As soon as 
I could put down my load I ran back to examine 
134 


LIFE’S DECISIONS 


it, when to my surprise and horror I found it to 
be a loathesome serpent, coiled ready to strike. 
So is sin always. When we yield to it and be¬ 
come conscious of our guilt, we try to cover it 
up—to hide from God, and from men as well. 
Failing in this as we always do, we try to put 
the blame on others, only to have the conviction 
fastened upon us sooner or later that we our¬ 
selves must bear the blame and the punishment. 

We all become conscious that we have been 
swerved aside from the pursuit of the best; and 
are made to realize that to obtain the true 
riches, decisions must be made, changes must 
come in our life’s plan, a turning about on 
many points, a new direction given to the cur¬ 
rents of our being. 

These turning points are the crucial moments 
in life—the strategic times when our personal¬ 
ity asserts itself against those influences both 
from without and from within which would 
hinder in us the development of the best. Some 
who have posed as great teachers would have 
us think that the religion of the future will not 
135 


HOW TO BE RICH 


believe in clearly defined and rapid transforma¬ 
tions of character. In other words, we must 
give up the old ideas of conversion. 

We need have no fear that truth will be 
overthrown by so-called scientists and philos¬ 
ophers, who in their conclusions ignore the 
facts of common experience. Theory, even with 
a supposedly great name back of it, counts for 
nothing against the actual facts of life. One 
Paul or one Jerry McAuley does more than all 
the volumes that might be written to turn into 
the wastebasket the product of those “advanced 
thinkers,” who have nothing but their own bla¬ 
tant conceit with which to convince the world 
that they are advanced. 

The Salvation Army is instrumental in 
lifting many a life from the blackness and the 
slime to where its garments shine in all the white¬ 
ness of a transfigured life. And three-fourths 
of all their converts hold true to the faith. 

A recent review has this to say of the work 
of William Duncan, the Apostle of Alaska: 
“Here was a man who without special training, 
136 


LIFE’S DECISIONS 


except such as he had in the school of God Him¬ 
self, brought to the degraded Indian tribes the 
good news of deliverance from sin. His hear¬ 
ers were for the most part splendid animals in 
whom passion had been let loose through asso¬ 
ciation with abandoned whites, and whose na¬ 
tures had been spoiled and corrupted by drink 
and lust. And yet in less than a year he had 
the great body of them directed to better ways 
of thinking, and in less than five years he had 
a Christian village and a community of disciples 
whose morality and integrity were the wonder 
and admiration of British officialdom.” 

Another, speaking of the work of rescue in 
the slums of English cities, says: “No one whose 
heart is not dead to the work of saving men 
can read these glimpses of British mission halls 
and their rescue work without being so stirred 
that his heart will burn and exult within him 
over the saving miracles wrought by power di¬ 
vine among lost and ruined men and women. 
The evidences of Christianity which blaze and 
thunder in the mission halls outargue Butler’s 
137 


HOW TO BE RICH 


Analogy and all other printed reasonings. And 
all the ignoramuses, learned and unlearned, who 
announce the passing of orthodox evangelical 
Christianity, and who imagine that the gospel is 
not the power of God unto salvation, are talk¬ 
ing out of a vacuum and parading their igno¬ 
rance of what is going on in the actual world 
to-day.” 

A multitude of people in the world know 
for themselves that in them “Old things have 
passed away and all things have become new.” 
It takes no proof to convince them of the pos¬ 
sibility of these things; they have experienced 
them, and have thus the most indisputable evi¬ 
dence, not from hearsay, but from personal 
knowledge. The fact that some learned jack- 
anape may have had no such experience is noth¬ 
ing against the fact, but only another point 
against himself. 

The fact of sudden changes and decisions 
is a matter of everyday occurrence with us all. 
A man fails in business; all the accumulations of 
a lifetime are swept away as in a moment; he sets 
138 


LIFE’S DECISIONS 


out for the river to end all by a plunge in its 
dark waters. He meets a friend who has all 
faith in his honesty and integrity, and in his 
ability to retrieve all he has lost, and more. 
That friend so inspires him with faith and cour¬ 
age that he turns directly about, returns to his 
family, re-enters the work of life, and makes a 
more brilliant success than he had ever dreamed 
possible. Another sets out on a journey, and in 
the course of time comes to a cross-roads, where 
two roads lead away at right angles from the one 
on which he has been traveling. One of these 
leads to his destination, and the other far away 
from that point. He discovers after an hour’s 
ride that he is on the wrong road. What shall 
he do but turn right about face at once and go 
in the opposite direction? It may take him 
some time to get thoroughly righted, but the 
fact of a sudden turning in order to get right is 
an actual fact of his experience. 

All roads do not lead right in the world 
of intellect and spirit any more than in com¬ 
mon country mud, and what is more reasonable 
I 39 


HOW TO BE RICH 


and in harmony with human nature than that 
the soul, powerfully convinced of its error, shall 
turn squarely about and enter that way which has 
been shown to be right? 

God’s power can right a man or woman who 
has gone wrong, if that personality created in 
His image with its own powers of choice will 
consent to accept the proffered help. If we be 
willing to put ourselves in the currents of spirit¬ 
ual power they will assuredly sweep us on to the 
best things the universe of God possesses for a 
soul. 

Conscious of having gone wrong, the ap¬ 
propriate prayer of every soul is that of the 
psalmist, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, 
and renew a right spirit within me.” The most 
important epoch in the life of a soul is when it 
halts in its wanderings and fully resolves to 
climb upward. 

Religion is both a science and an art. 
Science is knowledge. Art is the production of 
something. Religion is the science of know¬ 
ing God and His will, and the art of char- 
140 


LIFE’S DECISIONS 


acter production as a result of that knowledge. 
We all know that somehow human life has 
failed—it has lost its way. 

My supreme business being to make the 
most of myself, how can I do it? To make the 
most of only a part of our being means a de¬ 
formed and narrow life. To make the most 
possible of ourselves is the ideal. Yet we are 
conscious that this is just what we have not 
done. Religion tells us that the only way is to 
get right with God. It is through lack of 
moral response to the best that is in us that 
our sense of failure comes. The perfect re¬ 
sponse of our moral nature to the moral nature 
of God Himself is the ideal condition, and con¬ 
version is the process by which we attain it. It 
is in what we are—in the personality, the 
foundation substance which lies back of all out¬ 
ward activities—that the change described by 
that word must be wrought. To be converted 
means to have the bad, both in thought and 
action, replaced by the good. There is very 
little of real moral reconstruction involved in 


HOW TO BE RICH 


religion as understood and practiced by many 
so-called religious people to-day. 

Conversion is a change of mind, but more 
than that it is a change of character. It is a re¬ 
construction of our moral being. 

How does this great transformation come 
about? 

Man’s affiliation of himself with God brings 
about a real reproduction of the divine char¬ 
acter within. Jesus was conscious that at every 
moment God’s thought, God’s will, God’s ac¬ 
tual life were being reproduced in Him. The 
Fatherhood of God so far as we are concerned 
must be taken to mean the same thing to the 
extent of our capacity. God wants thus to be a 
Father to us. He is ready and yearning to make 
my life a copy, a reproduction of His own. But 
He can be and do that only as I permit Him. 
God loves me, and love is an active effort on 
the part of Him who loves to unite with Him¬ 
self the object on which His love is set. 

In view of this love, genuine repentance must 
be an adequate recognition of the fact that the 
142 


LIFE’S DECISIONS 


life not given to God has been an injury to 
him. The truly repentant spirit thinks far more 
of what it has done to God—its best friend— 
than of what God may do to it by way of punish¬ 
ment. 

Repentance is the beginning of life’s spirit¬ 
ual enrichment. Christ is the life giver. He 
came not only to be a revealer of the divine, but 
to communicate the divine. He not only shows 
what God is, but imparts God to man. Re¬ 
ceiving Christ we receive life, and receiving life 
we receive all. 

The effort to realize in our experience the 
life of God resolves itself into the making of 
our inward life touch upon and be inspired by 
the inner life of Jesus. The disciple is brought 
to God by abandoning himself to the Christ. 
We may do and be some worthy things apart 
from Christ, but of the life of God apart from 
Him we can not partake. Through Him the 
life of the Father has come to men. Life 
gripping life transforms into its own likeness 
the life that allows itself to be gripped. The 
I 43 


HOW TO BE RICH 


person of commanding influence molds. This 
will mean in our relation to God a real sor¬ 
row for the past, and a desire for a better and 
more perfect life; a coming to Christ as the life 
giver through whose power the divine life in us 
must be realized; the submitting of the entire 
personality to the personality of Christ as the 
poorer to the richer for what that richer has to 
give. When the soul thus turns to God His 
mighty personality comes into and floods the en¬ 
tire being with His fellowship and His love, so 
that the soul rejoices in a new-found life which 
is “Joy unspeakable and full of glory.” 

We become new beings when without reser¬ 
vation we yield intellect, affections, and will, not 
to the high, but to the Highest; when we allow 
God to come into the quietude of mind and 
heart and reveal Himself as He is. The hu¬ 
man heart is not simply to make room for God 
among the other things it holds dear, but to 
clear them out altogether, and let them come in 
again only as He wills it so. 

This does not mean that the other things in 
144 


LIFE’S DECISIONS 


life that are really worth while shall be given up, 
but rather that they shall be the more force¬ 
fully pursued. It gives life the only sure and 
safe anchorage. Having found itself and sure 
of its position, the soul for the first time, and in 
the only possible way, becomes capable of the 
very best things. 

Youth is the logical period for entering 
God’s service. Careful thinkers have recently 
made an extensive study of the subject of conver¬ 
sion for the purpose of finding out the age at 
which people are most likely to turn to God. 
They find that the greatest number are con¬ 
verted between the ages of thirteen and sev¬ 
enteen. Four-fifths of all who ever come to 
Christ come between the ages of eleven and 
twenty. Not one in a hundred is converted 
after the age of thirty. 

This is no denial of the power of God to 
save at any age, but is simply a statement of 
fact that not one in a hundred actually does re¬ 
turn to Him after that age. This simple fact 
is worth more than all the theories in the world 


10 


145 


HOW TO BE RICH 


in deciding this great question, and it shows con¬ 
clusively not only the importance, but the neces¬ 
sity of early religion. This is true because youth 
is the time when habits are being formed, tastes 
developed, and the other great choices of life 
decided upon. It is the time when we natu¬ 
rally decide what we are to do in life, and who 
are to be our life companions in the doing of that 
work. So it is the time of all others in which 
to make this greatest of all choices—that be¬ 
tween a life of active virtue and godliness, and 
a life of indifference which will most certainly 
end in sin and hopelessness. 

The greatness and glory of our lives will de¬ 
pend upon our responsiveness to the touch of 
the fingers of God as they are impressed in so 
many ways on the marvelous instrument of the 
soul. 

Set Paderewski down to a block of wood, 
and no matter how skillful and perfect might be 
his touch, no music would come; but let him sit 
down to a piano, every key of which responds 
perfectly to the mood of his soul as expressed by 
146 


LIFE’S DECISIONS 


that master touch, and what wonderful melody 
will be the result. 

Too many of us are missing the true wealth 
and blessing of existence by our failure to open 
our nature to the touch of God, and to the 
riches that are within our grasp. 

A playmate of my boyhood days lives to¬ 
day on the same farm and in the same house 
where he was born. That of itself is nothing 
unusual or remarkable. But this house was 
built of logs in pioneer days, and afterwards 
weatherboarded, and is so out of repair that it 
almost floods out the family when it rains. The 
boards are warped and twisted so that they 
point in every conceivable direction. 

Yet on that farm, to be had for the effort 
required to go after them, are the finest building 
stone and the best of hardwood timber—oak, 
maple, birch, cherry, and walnut—and many 
times as much extra as would pay for the work 
of construction, if he were not able to pay for 
it otherwise. 

Why live in a hovel when a palace is within 
147 


HOW TO BE RICH 


reach? Why, above all, should any of us fol¬ 
low such an example when it comes to the things 
of the higher life? 

The tragic thing about life is that so many 
young men and women with the best within 
reach never lay hold upon it, and thus miss 
life’s treasures. 

“ Laid on Thine altar, O my Lord Divine, 

Accept my will this day, for Jesus’ sake ; 

I have no jewels to adorn Thy shrine— 

Nor any world-proud sacrifice to make ; 

But here I bring within my trembling hand, 

This will of mine—a thing that seemeth small, 

And Thou alone, O God, canst understand 
How, when I yield Thee this, I yield my all. 

Hidden therein, Thy searching gaze can see 
Struggles of passion—visions of delight— 

All that I love, and am, and fain would be, 

Deep loves, fond hopes, and longings infinite. 

It hath been wet with tears and dimmed with sighs, 
Clinched in my grasp, till beauty hath it none— 
Now, from the footstool where it vanquished lies, 

The prayer ascendeth, ‘ May Thy will be done.’ 
Take it, O Father, ere my courage fail, 

And merge it so in Thine own will, that e’en 
If in some desperate hour my cries prevail, 

And Thou give back my will it may have been 
So changed, so purified, so fair have grown, 

So one with Thee, so filled with peace divine, 

I may not see or know it as my own, 

But, gaining back my will, may find it Thine.” 

I48 


VIII. Some Acquired Essentials of 

Success 


“ God has His best things for the few 
Who dare to stand the test; 

He has His second choice for those 
Who will not have His best.” 


This above all : to thine own self be true, 

And it must follow, as the night the day, 

Thou canst not then be false to any man.” 

— Shakespeare. 


“ Not in the clamor of the crowded street, 

Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, 
But in ourselves are triumph and defeat.” 

— Longfellow. 


* Diving and finding no pearls in the sea, 

Blame not the ocean, the fault is in thee.” 

—From the Persian. 


SOME ACQUIRED ESSENTIALS 
OF SUCCESS 

Notwithstanding the treasures about us and 
the power God has delegated to us of deciding 
for ourselves the aim of life, we shall not make 
the best of even a good life without certain 
things that can be acquired only through the 
stress and struggle of actual living. 

The permanent riches from our environment 
can be had only through effort, even as the 
cheaper things of a perishable nature can be 
ours only as we labor for them. 

Familiar it may be, but true to our deepest 
life is the story of Theseus, a youth of the olden 
time. On the summit of a hill was a great 
stone, underneath which were treasures, in¬ 
cluding the equipments of the young hero, and of 
supreme importance to him. These he was to 
have only when he could by his own might turn 
over the stone and take them. 

I5i 


HOW TO BE RICH 


After he had reached a certain age his 
mother took him up on the hill to try the stone. 
He could not move it. The next year he went 
through a course of physical training and tried 
again, but with the same result. And so year 
after year he kept up the training and the try¬ 
ing, until at last he was able to overturn the 
stone and grasp joyously the weapons for his 
life’s work. It is the part of divine wisdom 
that it should be so. Theseus would not have 
been able to handle his weapons had he not first 
developed power sufficient to overturn the rock. 

So we, if we could get those things that are 
necessary to success without having put forth our 
best efforts for their acquirement, would find 
them too ponderous for our strength. We 
would be like David, crushed down under the 
weight of Saul’s armor, unable to use it. 

Every normal, healthy child has splendid 
visions and dreams of the future. One day a j 
father presented his little son with a book in 
which was recorded the life story of a great 
man, who had received the highest honors his 
152 


ACQUIRED ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 


own land could bestow upon him; and then go¬ 
ing abroad, had been honored and feted the 
whole world around, until, grown weary of it 
all, he stood one day upon the deck of a large 
ocean steamer as she plowed the waters of the 
great deep. As he stood upon the deck gazing 
eastward, the signs of land appeared, and soon 
the vessel sighted a harbor entrance. He knew 
that it was the object of his longing. He knew 
that beyond, spread out in beauty, were the 
mountains and plains, the hills and valleys of 
his own beloved America, for from the vessels 
in that harbor floated that emblem of liberty, 
his country’s flag. He knew it was the Golden 
Gate—the entrance to the harbor of San Fran¬ 
cisco. And as the vessel neared the harbor he 
felt a thrill of delight and joy as he thought of 
the loved ones he was soon to meet, and of the 
rich prospect which awaited him when he had 
reached that smiling land beyond the Golden 
Gate which he was rapidly nearing. 

Now there is a period in the life of each 
one of us which may fittingly be compared to 
H3 


HOW TO BE RICH 


this incident in the life of the traveler, but with 
one great difference. The traveler looks for¬ 
ward with joy to the Golden Gate only after he 
has become weary of travel; while the point to 
which we look forward is one which occupies our 
eager attention from very infancy. It is what 
we might call the transition period from prepara¬ 
tion to life’s great work. Where is the boy who 
does not look forward with eager impatience to 
the time when he will be a man; when he will be 
free to do as he pleases, and win for himself 
honor, wealth, and fame? O, how our hearts 
and brains have thrilled in anticipation of the 
great and glorious things which we could, in 
imagination, see awaiting us beyond the portals, 
of that magic gateway! 

But as those who are advanced in life, and 
even those of us who have scarcely yet entered 
upon that great field of fortune which lies be¬ 
yond that golden gate, as we look back over 
life what do we see? Probably to some of us 
it may have been otherwise, but to many it has 
been and is to-day bright. Yet we can see away 
154 


ACQUIRED ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 


back that which now seems to us like an oasis 
in a desert. We remember those happy days of 
childhood, when not a cloud nor even the sus¬ 
picion of a care darkened our sky. We can 
feel that that beautiful poem of Willis’s was in¬ 
deed a true picture of ourselves: 

“ Who could paint 
The young and shadowless spirit ? 

Who could chain 

The sparkling gladness of that heart that lived 
Like a glad fountain in the eye of light, 

With an unbreathing pencil ? Nature’s gift 
Has nothing that is like it. Sun and stream, 

And the new leaves of June, and the young lark 
That flees away into the depths of heaven 
Lost in his own wild music, and the breath 
Of springtime, and the summer eve, and noon 
In the cool autumn are like fingers swept 
Over sweet-toned affections, but the joy 
That enters into the spirit of a child 
Is deep as his young heart; his very breath, 

The simple sense of being is enough 
To ravish him, and like a thrilling touch 
He feels each moment of his life go by.” 

But how many of us realized the joys of 
childhood and its freedom until they were gone? 
Possibly none of us. We were all looking for¬ 
ward to something still brighter ahead of us. 

155 


HOW TO BE RICH 


Yet all too soon that bright vision vanished, 
and we could add with the poet: 

“ Beautiful, beautiful childhood ; delicate bud 
Of the immortal flower that will unfold 
And come to its maturity in heaven— 

I weep your earthly glory. ’T is a light 
Sent to the new-born spirit that goes out 
With the first idle wind. It is the leaf 
Freshly flung upon the river that will dance 
Upon the wave that stealeth out its light, 

Then sink of its own heaviness. The face 
Of the delightful earth will to your eye 
Grow dim ; the fragrance of the many flowers 
Be noticed not, and the beguiling voice 
Of nature in her gentleness will be 
To manhood’s senseless ear inaudible.” 

Yet why should it be so? Why should the 
delightful prospects, the high hopes of child¬ 
hood be blighted? Why should the fair land 
beyond this golden gate be turned into a desert 
almost as soon as we have set foot upon it? It 
should not be so.. Yet in most cases and to 
most of us this is the result. 

Many a young life, which has started out 
with as bright prospects as any of us, has re¬ 
sulted in a miserable failure. And why? Was 
it because “Mountains of darkness rose before 
156 


ACQUIRED ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 


the soul the pathway to whose sunlit summits 
was impassable?” Ah, no. But in nine cases 
out of ten, where failure has resulted, it has been 
because those who made the failure have started 
out without preparation, or without sufficient 
preparation, or the right kind of preparation 
for the work which was before them. It is true 
we will all meet difficulties and have obstacles 
to overcome, which we see not now and which 
we will not always be able to anticipate; yet if 
we start right it is possible for us to make this 
entrance from the period of preparation to active 
life—from boyhood and girlhood to manhood 
and womanhood—such that it will be truly a 
golden gate to each and every one of us. 

This preparation must be of a threefold 
nature if, in mature life, we would be ready to 
dig the most out of earth’s richest mines. The 
man who digs in any mine must have some sort 
of an equipment to begin with. Life’s best 
equipment consists in a healthy body, an educated 
mind, and a clean heart. 

A strong body full of life and energy is es- 
157 


HOW TO BE RICH 


sential to the best work. Life is like an observ¬ 
atory with a basement, consisting of a sub¬ 
stantial foundation, heating and power plant; a 
ground floor with windows, giving an outlook to 
all points of the compass; and a dome, open not 
only in all directions to the earth, but giving a 
limitless sweep of the heavens as well. The 
foundation and basement equipment must be of 
the best, or the work will be uncertain and in the 
end unsatisfactory. 

We should each have the best possible body. 
No boy or girl can afford to form any bad 
habits. A few years ago a young man started 
out in life very successfully, and soon acquired a 
fine fortune. He said to his pastor one day: “I 
have all any man needs. I will let the other fel¬ 
low have a chance now, while I enjoy what I 
have earned.” He was even then on the point 
of collapse, and in less than a year was lying un¬ 
der the sod. He had learned as a boy an evil 
habit, which had grown upon him, as such things 
always do, until the strength of his life had been 
eaten out, and his vital forces gave way when 
158 


ACQUIRED ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 


they ought to have been In the vigor of their 
prime. 

There comes to mind a minister of the gos¬ 
pel—a man of might and power, who was a 
leader of the work of his denomination, but who, 
by bad habits in youth, had so wrecked his phys¬ 
ical life that for him the joys of living were 
sadly curtailed, and his own usefulness in his 
profession largely hindered. 

Many there are who by mistreating their 
physical being, and taking into it things that 
God never intended should be so used, are de¬ 
stroying it, and wrecking its powers to that 
extent that what God gave as a basis for higher 
life, is a hindrance and a curse to that life in¬ 
stead. A good body gives its possessor a de¬ 
cided advantage in life from every point of 
view. 

A trained mind is an element of untold 
value in making the most of life. A prominent 
college president recently took the trouble to 
examine carefully “Who’s Who in America” 
for the purpose of discovering the relative value 
159 


HOW TO BE RICH 


of a trained mind in the work of life. He found 
that of those prominent enough to be mentioned 
in that work more than seventy per cent had re¬ 
ceived a college education, while but nine per 
cent had stopped with less than a high school 
course. He found further that the college grad¬ 
uates form only one in three hundred of the 
population, and in proportion to their numbers 
should have furnished but one-third of one per 
cent of these successful men and women, instead 
of seventy per cent. The uneducated part of 
the population, instead of furnishing two hun¬ 
dred and ninety-nine out of every three hundred 
of the successful ones as their numbers would 
have entitled them to do, furnished less than a 
third of that number. 

That is, the chances of success are multi¬ 
plied more than two hundred times by having a 
college training. However, we would enter a 
strong protest against the merely commercial 
aspect of education. It is valuable from this 
point of view, but this is not its highest value. 
The old idea that the girl does not need this kind 
160 


ACQUIRED ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 


of training because she is to be a homekeeper, 
and that the boy does not need it unless he is to 
be a minister, doctor, or lawyer, has gone for¬ 
ever out of date. 

The great object of education is not pri¬ 
marily to make money, but to help one in living 
the richest possible life. It is therefore just 
as valuable to the hod-carrier or the street- 
sweeper as to anybody else. So, too, the girls, 
who are to train and most largely mold in the 
homes the men and the women of the future, 
are as much in need of the best mental culture 
and training as those who preach the sermons, 
write the books, and make the laws of the 
world. 

Not money or fame, but an enlargement of 
soul for all time and eternity, is the first reason 
for mental culture as it is for spiritual cul¬ 
ture. Who then can afford to neglect it or 
treat it lightly? 

Another of the acquired essentials of success 
is a pure heart. In the lack of this is to be 
found the source of the so-called failures of edu- 
161 


11 


HOW TO BE RICH 


cation. It sometimes happens that a young man 
is sent to college by his parents. He is a bril¬ 
liant fellow and enters at the head of his class. 
In the course of a few years he comes out at 
the other end of the class, and returns home to 
be a burden and a disgrace to his family for the 
remainder of his life. Ever afterward in that 
community if a father does not care to heed his 
son’s request for college training, he points to 
that fellow with the remark that the kind of edu¬ 
cation that turns out that sort of product is good 
for nothing. 

What is the trouble ? It is not with the edu¬ 
cation at all, but with the kind of thing upon 
which such a valuable commodity was wasted. 
That kind of boy, because of his moral lack, 
would have been but a miserable failure under 
any conditions. The trouble was not with the 
mental training, but with the moral character 
of the boy. If he had had anything in him to 
begin with, the training of his mind would have 
increased its value many fold. 

The world demands to-day two qualities in 
162 


ACQUIRED ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 


its workers: that they know, and that they 
can be trusted. There is a widespread com¬ 
plaint that it is almost impossible to get those 
who possess both qualities; those who both 
know how to do their work, and who can be 
trusted to serve their employers as they would 
serve themselves. That kind of a life is sure to 
succeed. 

Bishop Bashford touches the heart of the 
matter when he says: “Knowledge is the first 
essential of kingship or mastery. You or I 
would be terrified to be left alone on an engine 
running at the rate of sixty miles an hour. But 
the engineer is without fear, because his knowl¬ 
edge of the engine makes him its master. So 
the drugstore, and the chemical laboratory, and 
the electric generators destroy the uninitiated, 
who presume to trifle with them, but serve the 
masters, who understand their contents. Edu¬ 
cation first means knowledge, and knowledge is 
mastery. It starts one on the road to kingship. 
But while knowledge makes one king in the line 
which he masters, it alone will never give com- 
163 


HOW TO BE RICH 


mand of human hearts. Faust was master of 
alchemy, but not king of men. Kingship springs 
from service, and often from sacrifice. The 
prophet must become a priest and bear the bur¬ 
dens and sins of his people before he can become 
their king. The father rules the family so far 
as he supports the family. The mother rules 
the home so far as she serves the home. As 
the children begin to serve, they, too, come to 
independence and authority. Mastery springs 
from knowledge, and kingship springs from 
service. But when one becomes both prophet 
and priest, then no power on earth can keep him 
from his kingdom.” 

Recent developments in political and busi¬ 
ness life show that the world is demanding as 
never before that its successful men and women 
be true to the fundamental principles of right¬ 
eousness. This can be obtained only through 
that transformation into the divine likeness of 
which we have spoken. 

Going forth, then, with a strong body, a 
trained mind, and a pure heart, we shall be 
164 


ACQUIRED ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 


able to win from nature, companions, books, the 
Divine Spirit, and from every other available 
source their richest possible contribution to our 
life. But to win these things we must not 
sleep during the formative period of life. At 
this period must be developed right habits of 
thought, vigor of body and mind, and strength 
of character, or the chances will be forever 
against us. 

One can not come down the Hudson from 
Albany to New York on a beautiful summer day, 
and take in all the delightful scenery along that 
charming waterway—past the Highlands and 
the old home of Washington Irving, and Sleepy 
Hollow, where Rip Van Winkle dreamed away 
his twenty years of life—without having it im¬ 
pressed upon him how much one would lose by 
sleeping through twenty years of the best of 
life in the midst of all that loveliness. 

The meditation simply serves to remind one 
of the fact that many people do just that thing, 
not for twenty years only, but for all their life¬ 
time. 

1 65 


HOW TO BE RICH 


We have read of a shepherd boy in the Alps 
who found a flower of unusual beauty growing 
on the mountain, which he plucked,—when sud¬ 
denly a door opened in the mountain-side, lead¬ 
ing into a cavern, where he found heaps of 
jewels piled about the floor. He began to fill 
his bag with the glittering gems, when an angel 
appeared, and said, “Take all you like, but 
do n’t forget the best.” Laden with the 
treasures, he went out and started down the 
mountain, when his jewels turned to dust. 
Turning back he could not find the way, and 
he remembered that he had forgotten his flower. 
That had been the key to the treasure house, and 
without it he had lost all. 

Let us be awake to the riches of life, and in 
that fact itself we shall hold in our hands the 
key to their possession. 


166 


IX. Working With the Master 

Workman 


“ The glory is not in the task, but in 
The doing of it for Him.” 

— Ingelow. 


“ We are building every day 
In a good or evil way, 

And the structure as it grows 
Will our inmost self disclose.” 


“ He stood, the youth they called the Beautiful, 

At morning, on his untried battlefield, 

And laughed with joy to see his stainless shield, 

When, with a tender smile, but doubting sigh, 

His lord rode by. 

When evening fell, they brought him, wounded sore, 
His battered shield with sword-thrusts gashed and rent, 
And laid him where the king stood by his tent. 

‘Now thou art Beautiful,’ the master said, 

And bared his head.” 

— Hawes. 


** For we are laborers together with God.”— Paul. 


WORKING WITH THE MASTER 
WORKMAN 


In any field of labor one of the first things es¬ 
sential to success is that we work in harmony 
with the laws of the universe—that we be in 
line with God. 

In order to get the best out of any kind of 
machinery, it must be handled by one who 
thoroughly understands it; and if it goes wrong, 
one who knows all about it must be the mender. 
If your watch should go wrong, you would not 
take it to a blacksmith or a boiler-maker to get 
it repaired, but to a jeweler, who has the peculiar 
knowledge and skill needed to set it right. No 
difference how splendid may be the locomotive 
as it lies upon the track with steam up, ready for 
the long run, if you put on board a man who 
has never before been in the cab, and require 
him to run it, everybody would expect wreck and 
disaster. So with the marvelous machinery of 
169 


HOW TO BE RICH 


human souls—no one but the Master who 
knows all about them can set them right since 
they have gone wrong; and only He can safely 
guide them after they have been righted. 

Therefore, it is not enough that we fit our¬ 
selves in the best way we know how, and that 
we turn to God for salvation and pure hearts, but 
we must everywhere and forever work with Him 
to achieve the best. His program, not on one 
point, but on all points, must be accepted as 
the rule of life. We must take Him, not only 
as Savior, but as Guide; not only as the One 
to give us the right start, but as the One 
upon whose strength and wisdom and love we 
shall lean always. How very much to the point, 
then, is Paul’s statement to the Corinthians, 
when he says, “We are laborers together with 
God.” If we think at all how very evident is 
this fact in relation to the material world, it 
does not take us long to make the discovery here 
that God can work without us. 

Walking one day by the roadside, I plucked 
a clover head, and became very much inter- 
170 


WITH THE MASTER WORKMAN 


ested in examining it with the help of a micro¬ 
scope. I found it was not a single flower as I 
had once supposed, but that it was composed of 
a hundred flowers, each one as complete and 
perfect and beautiful as anything the mind could 
conceive. Yet that flower, or head of flowers, 
had grown there by the wayside, neglected so 
far as man was concerned, and having received 
not the slightest attention from his hand. There 
God was working without man. 

We are told that “He looketh upon the 
earth, and it trembleth, He toucheth the hills, 
and they smoke.” 

Some time ago in one of the popular maga¬ 
zines was a description of the last great earth¬ 
quake in Java. You may remember the re¬ 
markably brilliant sunsets for months after 
that shock, supposed to have been caused by 
dust particles thrown into the upper air by that 
mighty force. The writer, who was an eye wit¬ 
ness to that remarkable convulsion of nature, 
describes the scene as the earth and the moun¬ 
tains began to tremble. He ran out of the 

171 


HOW TO BE RICH 


house, and out of the little city lying on a curv¬ 
ing seacoast, and after climbing part way up the 
mountain to the rear, came upon a crevice in 
the earth from which fire issued. 

Passing this, and becoming exhausted, he 
paused to look back. Many little vessels with 
white sails were lying at anchor in the bay. 
Suddenly the earth opened up in the bottom of 
the sea, and the waters began to seethe and hiss 
as they poured into the abyss of fire beneath. 
That line of vessels broke from their moorings 
and began to move, nearer and nearer to that 
awful caldron, until one by one they went over 
the brink and were lost forever in its unknown 
depths. 

There was a terrific explosion, followed by 
darkness as of night. When that pall lifted 
the city had disappeared, islands had sunk into 
the sea, rivers had been turned out of their 
courses, new islands were thrown up, and what 
was once sea had become dry land—in short, 
the whole geography of the region had been 
changed. 


172 


WITH THE MASTER WORKMAN 


What had happened? The Lord had 
touched the earth with the finger of His power. 
Man had nothing to do with it. 

We sometimes blame God for these ter¬ 
rible events in their loss of human life, but 
we are told that without the action of those 
forces that incidentally produce such terrible 
results the world would long ago have become 
uninhabitable. Man has not yet grown wise 
enough to keep out of the way of danger in 
the working out of the results of these benefi¬ 
cent forces. 

But these little earth convulsions are noth¬ 
ing, we are told, when compared with what 
goes on at times in other parts of our Father’s 
possessions. Dark spots occasionally appear on 
the sun. These indicate great physical disturb¬ 
ances in the substance of that glorious luminary. 
Those who have carefully studied these things, 
tell us that great yawning chasms at times open 
up on its surface large enough to engulf our 
earth in one corner of them. That is, there is 
being enacted before our eyes, did we have the 
173 


HOW TO BE RICH 


reach and keenness of vision to behold it, scenes 
beside which the terrors of Java’s earthquake 
are but as child’s play. 

The sun itself is only a little one among 
heaven’s luminaries. God swings those mighty 
worlds like playthings through their immense 
orbits, and that without noise or jar. Every 
little while He touches one of them and it falls 
from its place in heaven, is burned up and goes 
out in darkness. 

As I look upon these countless millions of 
suns that shine in heaven, and think how my 
Father holds them all in the hollow of His 
hand, what a delightful feeling of safety some¬ 
how creeps over me! And as I think how He 
holds me, not in the hollow of His hand merely, 
but with the great everlasting arms all about me, 
how it thrills and floods my soul with gratitude 
and love and joy! Can any harm come to me 
unless I take myself voluntarily out of those 
arms? Ah, no. As soon shall the pearly gates 
rust with age, or the luster of heaven itself grow 
dim. Yes, thank God! my Father can work 
without me. 174 


WITH THE MASTER WORKMAN 


Another fact which we are also early to 
discover is that man can not work without God. 
It may be that you have planted roses in which 
you took a great deal of interest. You pro¬ 
tected them during the winter, and as spring 
came on how careful you were to note the 
signs of returning life. At length you saw the 
bush unfold its glossy green leaves to the sum¬ 
mer sun, and as you watched it closely one 
morning with the dewdrops shining upon the 
little green buds, one or two of them became 
tipped with red, as if an angel’s brush had 
touched them. Finally, as they burst into the 
fragrance and beauty of bloom and looked up 
into your face, you said: “What beauties! See 
what fine roses I have grown.” 

But you did n’t grow them. You had a part 
in it. They would not have come to such per¬ 
fection—perhaps, might not have grown at all 
—without your care and attention. Neither 
would they have grown without God’s air and 
rain and sunshine. In the production of those 
sweet flowers you have been a worker together 
with God. 175 


HOW TO BE RICH 


So the gardener or the farmer tills his land, 
puts in his seeds, and cares for them; but God 
gives the proper seasons and the conditions 
necessary to growth; and He gives to the seeds 
their strange power of taking hold on the ele¬ 
ments of growth in earth and air and water, 
transforming them into their own peculiar 
product to please the taste and support the life 
of man. 

What ingratitude is displayed by some of us 
when we enjoy all these things and never thank 
God for His part in supplying them. 

Our great and beautiful buildings are 
planned and erected only by using His materials, 
brought together by His forces, through the 
activities of a brain created and energized by 
His wisdom and power. 

If we turn to the realm of invention, the 
same thing is true—we are here also workers 
with God. We admire the mighty throbbing 
engine as it rushes across the continent with its 
precious load; or the giant stationary engine do¬ 
ing the work of hundreds of men. We say, 
176 


WITH THE MASTER WORKMAN 


“What a product of human ingenuity!” and so 
it is. But if God had not made the raw ma¬ 
terials for its construction it could never have 
been. Had He not provided the water, and 
grown the wood, and stored the coal for our 
use, that wonderful piece of mechanism would 
lie in its place a helpless mass of useless 
metal. 

We travel in the electric car without horses 
or engine, or any other visible means of loco¬ 
motion. We communicate thought through the 
air without wires. We speak from one city to 
another hundreds of miles apart, and from ship 
to ship over great stretches of stormy sea, and 
save hundreds of lives by so doing. We have 
the brightest and most dazzling light without 
any of the means known to our fathers. 

We simply furnish the apparatus for these 
things—God furnishes the power, the real thing 
that accomplishes the results in them all. Al¬ 
though the thunders have rolled in the dark¬ 
ened heavens from the beginning, it is but re¬ 
cently that man has grown to the intellectual 
12 177 


HOW TO BE RICH 


stature that enables him to bring them down to 
rumble over his streets. God has given us the 
wisdom to accomplish these marvels, but the 
lightnings are His own. And so it is every¬ 
where. We are workers with God in every de¬ 
partment of physical life and activity. 

The wonder is how so many men—how any 
man—can thus work with God continually and 
everywhere, and yet be so dull of mind and blind 
of heart as never to see Him anywhere. 

But this suggests to us another great 
thought. We are workers with God on our 
own lives. He made the worlds and knows all 
the secrets of nature and life. He created us 
and thoroughly understands our every need. 
And, loving us as He does with a love that is 
immeasurable, He has given us His Word in 
order to show us what is best for us. Having 
come into a position where we are at variance 
with that law, the greatest thing in the world 
for us is to be set right. 

The greatest conquest you and I can ever 
make is that of self. This is the greatest pos- 
178 


WITH THE MASTER WORKMAN 


sible achievement in life. What would you not 
give sometimes to be able absolutely to control 
yourself—to direct every action of life in per¬ 
fect harmony with your best knowledge and 
highest judgment? Such a victory would be 
worth more to the soul than anything else in 
the world. It can be won if we will. We can’t 
do it ourselves—perhaps you have tried that and 
failed. Neither can God accomplish it without 
our co-operation. Both God and the soul must 
unite in this conflict. God has given us the plan 
of what is best, and He has promised that in 
our struggles for the realization of that plan 
His grace shall be sufficient for us. 

Men have sought in the diamond mines of 
South Africa and the gold fields of California, 
Australia, and the Klondyke for earth’s riches, 
all forgetful of the fact that the richest treas¬ 
ures of the universe lay buried in their own neg¬ 
lected souls. 

Donald G. Mitchell, in that delightful lit¬ 
tle book, entitled “Dream Life,” says: “The 
consciousness of having mastered passion en- 
179 


HOW TO BE RICH 


dows the soul with an element of power that 
can never harmonize with defeat.” This mas¬ 
tery we can have only by God’s help. God’s 
plan contemplates the best possible in the char¬ 
acter of your life and mine. For nothing short 
of this as a goal will God work with us. 

Ruskin tells us that while studying the archi¬ 
tecture of one of the great churches of Italy he 
discovered some statues high up in the building 
which seemed very perfect; but on climbing up 
to them he found them shams, only the portions 
that could be seen from the floor being per¬ 
fect. Is not that the picture of many a life? 
How often we see persons who on first acquaint¬ 
ance seem very perfect, yet on closer knowledge 
are found to be utterly unattractive. Only that 
part intended for display has any semblance of 
form or beauty. 

When Ruskin as an art critic was disgusted 
with such a revelation, what shall be His judg¬ 
ment who is Himself the very essence of all 
beauty? He expects something better of us 
than that. We have no right to live one-sided 
180 


WITH THE MASTER WORKMAN 


Christian lives. It is our privilege to grow into 
the “stature of the fullness of Christ.” 

However, we are forced to the conviction 
here, in all reverence and sincerity, that our 
lives will never be all that they might have 
been. How much higher would I stand to-day 
intellectually if I had mastered every lesson as¬ 
signed me in school? How much higher spir¬ 
itually would I be had I resisted every temp¬ 
tation and kept myself free from every known 
sin. No better illustration of the truth can be 
given on this point than the old one of Michael 
Angelo’s statue of David. It is said that a sen¬ 
sation was created in the world of art by the un¬ 
veiling of that matchless piece of work. But 
perfect as it was there was yet a flaw in it. That 
piece of marble had been wrought upon by 
another workman, who hacked and marred it 
until he thought it was worthless, and then 
threw it into the back yard. Angelo, passing 
by, saw it there half covered with rubbish, and 
seeing the possibilities in it, took it up and 
wrought upon it with results which surprised 
181 


HOW TO BE RICH 


the world. Yet with all his genius and skill 
he could not make of it what he could have done 
had it not been abused by the awkward hands of 
that unskillful workman. 

So God can take your life, vile and unworthy 
and marred and neglected though it may have 
been, and make of it a wonderfully glorious 
thing, lit to adorn the brightest halls of the 
Celestial City; yet even He, with all His wis¬ 
dom and power, can not make of it all that it 
would have been had it not been soiled and 
marred by sin. If God were working inde¬ 
pendently of us this might not be true—we dare 
say it would not be true—but so long as we are 
workers with Him, and He does not step in 
and change this human nature and make it 
other than it is, it must be so. The same thought 
is well expressed by the familiar words of the 
song: 

“ I walked in the woodland meadows. 

Where sweet the thrushes sing, 

And found on a bed of mosses, 

A bird with a broken wing; 

I healed its wing and each morning 
It sang its old sweet strain, 

182 


WITH THE MASTER WORKMAN 


But the bird with the broken pinion, 

Never soared as high again. 

“ I found a young life broken 
By sin’s seductive art, 

And touched with a Christlike pity 
I took him to my heart ; 

He lived with a nobler purpose, 

And struggled not in vain, 

But the life that sin had stricken, 

Never soared as high again.” 

This thought brings to us with mighty 
force the appeal to waste no more time. We 
have wasted too much already. 

God’s plan for me is the best possible in the 
character of my life, but that is not all; He ex¬ 
pects the fullest possible in the quantity of that 
life. 

Anything that is lacking in vitality is not 
attractive. The sickly plant or animal or 
child is not natural or what God intended it 
should be. “A thing is beautiful in proportion 
to its fullness of life.” 

God does not want you to live a narrow and 
hampered life, if it is possible for you to live 
one that is broad and free. He does not want 

183 


HOW TO BE RICH 


you to live a shallow life, if you can live one that 
is deep and full. He requires not only quality, 
but quantity. 

One of the saddest things in the world would 
be to see a lovely child—however much we love 
it as such—remain a child in body and in mind 
through all the years. We desire not only a per¬ 
fect child, but perfect development and growth 
in that child. 

So God expects the same in us. How forci¬ 
bly this lesson is taught in the parable of the 
pounds! The Master called His ten servants 
and delivered to them ten pounds with the 
command, “Occupy till I come.” When He re¬ 
turned the first came and said, “Lord, Thy 
pound hath gained ten pounds,” and he was 
rewarded accordingly. Then came the second 
with the report that his pound had gained five 
pounds, and he, too, received his commenda¬ 
tion and his reward. Then another came, say¬ 
ing, “Lord, behold here is Thy pound, which I 
have kept laid up in a napkin.” 

Note this: he had neither lost it, nor wasted 
184 


WITH THE MASTER WORKMAN 


it, nor thrown it aside as worthless; he had 
taken great care of it—even kept it laid up in a 
napkin—yet he was condemned. Not because 
he had soiled it, but because he had not used 
and developed it. 

If it were possible for us to go through life 
with all the purity and innocence of childhood, 
we would be doing vastly better than most of us 
are, yet even that would fall short of the di¬ 
vine requirement. He expects us to use our 
talents and develop much more power than that 
with which He originally endowed us. Let us 
never forget that we need both quality and quan¬ 
tity of life. 

God has given us the materials to erect a 
noble building; and we are each building after 
some fashion. He tells us that our building is 
to be tested by fire. Are we using the materials 
He gives? Are we building after His plans? 
Are we workers with Him on our lives? No 
difference how splendid may have been our 
equipment to begin with, no matter how glori- 
our entrance upon life’s duties, we shall 

185 


ous 


HOW TO BE RICH 


not work with God as He intends if we abuse or 
misuse the body, or if we neglect either intellect¬ 
ual or spiritual opportunity. The “Commence¬ 
ment day” of the student is really the beginning 
and not the end of his endeavors. So the finest 
possible preparation of body, mind, and spirit 
will be in vain unless we continue to work 
through all the drudgery of a lifetime in per¬ 
fect fellowship with the great Master Workman 
of the universe. 

We would say further, that the achievement 
of the good is ours, not that we may keep it to 
ourselves, and for ourselves, but that we may 
impart it to others. Therefore God expects 
us to be also workers with Him on the lives 
of our fellows. The Master Workman has be¬ 
stowed distinguished honor upon us in calling 
us to run His errands of mercy, and be workers 
with Him in the construction of a redeemed 
race. 

Those whose lives have been filled and 
thrilled with the divine life of God can go 
always with a message of power to others. We 
186 


WITH THE MASTER WORKMAN 


sometimes excuse ourselves from our God-given 
task on the ground that we are not specifically 
called to the ministry or missionary work. The 
call, “Go ye into all the world,” was not limited 
to any one class of disciples. Suppose your 
child had gone out in a skiff on the river, and, 
it may be through his own carelessness, were 
thrown into the waters and were drowning. I 
can swim, and am standing on the bank watch¬ 
ing his struggles. You appeal to me to save 
him, and I coldly answer, “No, I do n’t belong 
to a professional life-saving crew.” Coufd you 
ever forgive me ? 

Every saved soul knows, or ought to know, 
the way of life. How, then, must the great 
Father of all regard us if we stand by indifferent 
while His wayward children, for whom Christ 
died, go down in the dark waves to eternal 
death ? 

As we think of what the Master expects, 
little wonder if we sometimes feel that we are 
not sufficient for these things. But we must 
never lose sight of the fact that we work with 

187 


HOW TO BE RICH 


Him. Two mistakes are we apt to make here. 
Some become discouraged by the thought that 
they are working alone, and all depends upon 
them; while others become lazy because they 
imagine that God will do it all. Both are in 
error and must fall short of the best. When 
we work as if by our own might we must do all, 
and then rest in our great Leader as if He were 
doing it all—then great things will, indeed, be 
done. 

Many of us remember when the first efforts 
were made to run the street cars with electricity. 
Many a time the car would stop on a little hill, 
and people would say, “The power has given 
out.” But not so; man had not yet come into 
perfect connection with the power, that was all. 
So when with the best possible equipment on 
our part we reach up and come in perfect touch 
with the Power above, there will be—there can 
be—no question about results. 

Every other kind of life has proven a fail¬ 
ure. Give a man every advantage of wealth 
and he may turn out a criminal; train him in all 
18 8 


WITH THE MASTER WORKMAN 


the “culture” of the “most exclusive society” 
and he may be as coarse as the unwashed herd; 
educate him in the most famous schools and it 
may only the better prepare him for a life of 
supreme villainy; but cultivate in him a genuine 
love for the things of God, so that he will be a 
worker with Him, and even though he may 
lack all these other things, his life will be full 
of a glory supernal. 

“ We are living, we are dwelling, in a grand and awful time; 
In an age on ages telling—to be living is sublime. 

“ Will ye play, then, will ye dally, with your music and your 
wine ? 

Up, it is Jehovah’s rally ; God’s own arm hath need of thine ; 
Hark, the onset, will ye fold your faith-clad arms in lazy lock ? 
Up, O up, thou drowsy soldier, worlds are charging to the 
shock. 

“ On, let all the soul within you for the truth’s sake go abroad. 
Strike, let every nerve and sinew tell on ages, tell for God.’* 


189 
















X. The Ultimate Result 


“ ’T is life whereof our nerves are scant, 
More life and fuller, that I want.” 


“Wearing the white flower of a blameless life.” 

— Tennyson. 

“ Look not beyond the stars for heaven, 

Nor ’neath the sea for hell ; 

Know thou, who leads a useful life 
In Paradise doth dwell.” 

— Hafiz. 

“ Do thy duty, that is best; 

Leave unto thy Lord the rest.” 

— Lowell. 

“ For what is age but youth’s full bloom, 

A riper, more transcendent youth? 

A weight of gold is never old.” 


‘ Yet I see my palace shining, where my love sits 
amaranth twining, 

And I know the gates stand open, and I shall 
enter in.” — Craik. 


THE ULTIMATE RESULT 


God has given us the sources of wealth of which 
we have been thinking; He has made us free 
beings with the power of choice and the capacity 
for making the most out of these things; He 
has taught us how, by making the best of our¬ 
selves, and by working with Him, we may reap 
the richest results for ourselves and for others. 
It remains for us to discern, if we can, the ulti¬ 
mate purpose of it all. 

Why does God give us these precious 
things of life, and work with us, and through 
us, and for us, with such infinite love and 
patience ? Why, but that our own being may be 
perfected. The ultimate perfecting of life itself 
is God’s great purpose for us. This world is a 
great school for the development of men and 
women until they become true children of God, 
and as such, heirs of the ages and the eterni- 
13 193 


HOW TO BE RICH 


ties. This, so far as this world is concerned, is 
the final, the supreme result. 

That God has a loftier purpose for us than 
has ever yet been realized by individuals or na¬ 
tions is evident. The instinct of perfection is a 
part of our being, and as such is prophetic of 
God’s plan for us. When we employ any one 
to do our work, we want it done perfectly. On 
the other hand, the man or woman who does 
a piece of work, if at all worthy, does that 
work with the desire to excel. 

The architect, the artist, the sculptor, the 
poet, the mechanic, the professional man—in 
short, any worker at his best, works not merely 
for the money that is in it, however important 
and necesary that may be in its way, but for the 
joy of producing something worthy. 

We often hear non-Christians say, “I don’t 
want to begin the Christian life unless I can 
be better than some professing Christians I 
know;” a very commendable wish, as all must 
admit. God would not have planted in us this 
feeling that we ought to rise to higher things 
194 


THE ULTIMATE RESULT 


were such not His purpose for us, or the grati¬ 
fying of this instinct not possible of realization. 

A further evidence of God’s purpose for us 
lies in the fact of individual and race develop¬ 
ment. In the beginning He commissioned man 
to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. 
In spite of the presence of sin and the havoc 
wrought by it, the Lord has been training and 
shaping through the ages the lives and des¬ 
tinies of races and nations so as to bring about 
that result. Israel with her instinct for re¬ 
ligion, Greece with her passion for knowledge 
and culture, Rome with her adaptation for law 
and government, and America with her capacity 
for science and its application to the work of 
the world, have each had a large part in bring¬ 
ing the world nearer to the divine ideal. But 
that we have realized that ideal no intelligent 
mind would for a moment dare affirm. In fact, 
the attitude of the very greatest minds was well 
put by one of our ablest scholars and teachers 
recently when he said, “I used to think we knew 
pretty much all that was to be known, but the 
195 


HOW TO BE RICH 


older I grow, and the wider my experience be¬ 
comes, the more firmly I am convinced that we 
know but very little about anything.” 

God is also through the years not only 
leading races, but training individual lives. The 
truth is, that national and race progress are 
possible only through the perfecting of individ¬ 
ual lives. These give the impulse and shape the 
destinies of nations. And as in the first instance 
the richest possible things have not yet been 
realized, neither can it be true in the other case. 

The facts, then, of race progress and the de¬ 
velopment of the individual demonstrate God’s 
purpose to be the perfecting of life. Not merely 
the working with Him in an indifferent way, 
but the actual realization of His ideal in us. 
Since, therefore, the instincts of the soul, the 
leading of the divine hand in the history of the 
race, and the experience of the individual, all 
confirm the message of God’s Word, “Be ye per¬ 
fect,” we can not escape the responsibility thus 
laid upon us of realizing it in our lives. 

One of the great questions of life, therefore, 
196 


THE ULTIMATE RESULT 

is, How shall I attain it? How shall I realize 
the ultimate divine ideal for my soul? We 
would not presume to speak rashly here, for God 
can be trusted to lead aright the soul that seeks 
such leading. A few hints, however, may be of 
value, as many have gone sadly astray on this 
point. God does not always explain His way to 
us in advance, neither does He constantly man¬ 
ifest His purpose on the surface, either in His 
dealings with men or nations; but all along we 
catch glimpses, as the clouds part here and 
there, of His real plan. Here, for instance, is 
a man of unusual talent, whom God wants for 
some great work, but he needs discipline and 
strength. So he is put in a hard place and 
allowed to make his own way out; and by the 
time he gets out he has developed that power 
of muscle, or brain, or character which makes 
him master of the situation, and a leader in 
God’s great work. The very idea of this sort 
of experience involves the necessity of struggle 
and of temptation. A fragment of personal ex¬ 
perience may not be out of place here. 

197 


HOW TO BE RICH 


I used to do some boating on a little stream 
that will always hold sweet memories for me. 
My life is purer because I have looked into 
its crystal waters, dreamed on its sloping green 
banks, meditated in its depths of blue overhead, 
and drunk the sweetness of its springtime 
flowers. But in seeking those enjoyments I al¬ 
ways went up stream. 

It would have been easier to drift downward 
than to row upward, but above lay the beautiful 
landscape, the gently sloping hills of emerald, 
the clear water so pure and bright that you could 
scarcely tell where the stream left off and the 
verdure of the bank began, so perfect was the 
reflection. Up there were the water-lilies and 
the forest dipping its branches in the stream, and 
all that made the experience precious to me. 

I would have had those delights if it had cost 
me ten times the effort, and if rowing down 
stream had been ten times as easy, and have 
thought myself richly repaid. It was somewhat 
of a task to reach those things. It often made 
the muscles ache and the sweat stand out on the 
198 


THE ULTIMATE RESULT 


forehead, but resting among those delightful 
things was happiness itself. The thrill of joy 
on discovering a new flower, the loveliness of 
the great white water-lilies floating on the 
bosom of the lake, the ripple of the transparent 
waves on the pebbly shore, the fragrance of the 
wild strawberries peeping with scarlet cheek 
from under the scalloped leaf amid the grass— 
these are things I would go a long way to en¬ 
joy again, and make some sacrifices in order to 
do so. 

Effort and struggle and battling against the 
current being necessary in order to the attain¬ 
ment of best things either in the sphere of body, 
mind, or spirit, it must seem to any intelligent 
being that the effort to escape the force of that 
struggle—which always means temptation and 
victory over baser things—whether it be by Ro¬ 
man Catholic indulgence or Protestant juggling 
with the doctrine of sanctification, is unworthy 
of the soul, and contrary to the fundamental 
facts of God’s universe. To maintain that we 
can get beyond that point where we can be 
199 


HOW TO BE RICH 


tempted, or where temptation means anything, 
which is the same thing, would surely be putting 
the servant above his Lord, who was Himself 
“tempted in all points like as we are.” This 
we can not claim, for “the servant is not above 
his Lord.” 

As we understand this world and the life we 
live here, we must either take this position, or 
the only other possible, namely, that we have 
already arrived at the highest point we are 
capable of reaching both in mental and spiritual 
things. 

The chief trouble with our discussions of 
perfection has been the fact that we have too 
much concerned ourselves about God’s part, 
and too little heeded man’s part. The psalm¬ 
ist showed a discerning spirit when he said, 
“The Lord will perfect that which concerneth 
me.” The work is of God, who, as Master 
Musician, touches the harp of life as we yield 
it to Him, bringing out as He alone can all 
the music of which it is capable. Our part lies 
in the submission of ourselves to Him. 


200 


THE ULTIMATE RESULT 


We must co-operate with Him by having a 
teachable spirit. The writer has a friend who 
is intelligent and worthy in many ways, and yet 
he is of such a peculiar make-up that no one 
can teach him anything. Look up the latest 
information on any subject from farming to the 
philosophy of the Infinite, and he “already 
knew that” and can tell you more on the 
subject than you ever dreamed. Yet ask him 
whether he has read a certain book on any 
given subject, and he will almost invariably 
say No. He does not read much, yet he has the 
notion that there is nothing worth thinking about 
that he does not already know from top to bot¬ 
tom. You might as well try by argument to 
turn upside down the mountains on the moon 
as to convince him that there are “more things 
in heaven and earth than are dreamed of” in 
his philosophy. 

It is needless to say that such an attitude of 
mind shuts out the soul from all hope of larger 
things. It is a good thing to heed the injunction, 
“Be not wise in your own conceits.” It is not a 


201 


HOW TO BE RICH 


good thing in these days for me to imagine that 
God has chosen me as a special messenger to 
men, and that He would rather speak through 
me than through anybody else. It is whole¬ 
some for me to believe that if any other ear¬ 
nest seeker after truth does not see things just as 
I do, that the chances are he is as likely to be 
right as I am. An open mind and a teachable 
spirit bring me that which is most essential, so 
far as my part of the work goes, to the per¬ 
fecting of my life. 

An humble mind is also important. In fact, 
without this a teachable spirit is an impossibility. 
God bids me in His Word, “Be clothed with 
humility;” “In lowliness of mind let each es¬ 
teem other better than themselves;” “Let an¬ 
other man praise thee, and not thine own 
mouth.” And I know this to be a part of His 
message to my soul, just as surely as the words, 
“Be ye perfect.” Common sense tells me that 
without this kind of meekness “perfection” is 
but a sorry thing, indeed. 

Why, then, is it so hard for some of us to 


202 


THE ULTIMATE RESULT 


learn the lesson of the Pharisee, who thanked 
God that he was not as other men? An apostle 
of “ perfect love” entered a church on a beauti¬ 
ful spring morning to hear a minister whom he 
had never heard. When the minister greeted 
him kindly as he entered, he hissed between his 
teeth, “I have come to criticise.” He had not 
come to hear a message from God, but to find 
out if his particular fad were emphasized there 
to the exclusion of every other phase of truth. 
Hate was so visibly written all over his counte¬ 
nance that almost any one would have sooner 
taken him for an escaped criminal than for even 
the most common kind of a professing Chris¬ 
tian. 

Why can we not learn that the only way to 
testify to God’s power to perfect the life is not 
by talk of any kind whatsoever, but by show¬ 
ing to the world our own lives transformed? 
“What we are, we shall teach; not voluntarily, 
but involuntarily, character teaches over our 
head.” Such holiness does not need prating 
about. In fact, prating about even the reality, 
203 


HOW TO BE RICH 


if such a thing were possible, would be nauseous. 
It is ridiculous to talk about a really holy life 
not witnessing for Christ without self publi¬ 
cation. Wherever Christianity is known, it is a 
recognized truth that what a Christian is, he is 
by the grace of God. Since God is able to do 
for me “exceeding abundantly above all that we 
ask or think,” and as His plans for me are no 
doubt higher and more glorious than my fond¬ 
est dreams for myself, why should I expatiate 
on my own attainments either mental or spir¬ 
itual? 

I am altogether too close to myself to get 
the proper perspective. I may be living up to 
all my light, and yet my neighbor, rejoicing in 
a larger degree of light, may regard me as a 
hypocrite, and I may be unconsciously lowering 
God’s standard in the eyes of men. An humble 
mind and a teachable spirit are absolutely es¬ 
sential to the perfecting of my life. This be¬ 
longs to my part of the work, and I must let 
God do His part in His own way, both as it 
concerns my life and the lives of others. 

204 


THE ULTIMATE RESULT 


Some would try, as It were, to compel the 
Lord to run all souls in the same mold, and give 
them all the same ideas and experiences. As He 
has not seen fit to do so in nature, why should 
He do it in grace? This notion has created 
endless difficulty in leading men to Christ, by 
spreading abroad the impression that all must 
have exactly the same experiences in conversion. 
And as here, so with our higher life. God is too 
great and resourceful to be confined in His deal¬ 
ings with free beings to any one method of do¬ 
ing things. There is no need nor excuse for 
confusing the soul at this point. 

The scholars and saints of the Church have 
never agreed, and do not agree to-day, on some 
points as to the life of holiness. Why all these 
labored arguments and all this hair-splitting 
about “roots of sin,” and other theological fine 
points, with which some of us are only too 
familiar? What is the use of trying to force 
distinctions where none exist? When we come 
to God for pardon and cleansing, we come for 
all He has to give. God is wise enough to un- 
205 


HOW TO BE RICH 


derstand the cry of His children. We need 
not tell Him how to perfect our lives, or how 
to help us do it. He knows infinitely better 
than we do what we need, and how to bestow it. 

If my child should come to me with its 
little hand all crushed and bleeding, even 
though it had not the slightest idea of what was 
to be done, and could not tell me a thing 
about what it wanted, I would at once appre¬ 
ciate the situation, and do just as much, and just 
as gladly and quickly, all that could be done, as 
though it had placed before me a scientific de¬ 
scription of its hurt. 

To say that our great, loving, all-wise, Heav¬ 
enly Father will not, or can not, do as much for 
His sin-crushed child, is making Him less than 
God, less even than poor, weak, sinful man. 
Why, then, shall we not each draw near to God 
with open mind and heart, free from the bond¬ 
age of shibboleths and pet phrases, without be¬ 
ing branded with the earmarks of any sect or 
clique, and by committing our ways unto Him, 
and working with Him, without presuming to 
206 


THE ULTIMATE RESULT 


dictate how, or where, or when, in simple faith 
allow Him to “perfect that which concerneth 
us?” 

What the ultimate result of life in perfect 
harmony with God will mean in other realms 
than this none of us have either the knowledge 
nor the vision to determine. But we can rest in 
confidence that “The soul can be trusted to the 
end. That which is so beautiful and attractive 
as these relations must be succeeded and sup¬ 
planted only by what is more beautiful, and so 
on forever.” 

We can rejoice in the truth of John’s mes- 
sage, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, 
and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but 
we know that when He shall appear, we shall 
be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” 

I find in my soul an insatiable craving after 
life—a life that will not end. The body does 
not by nature hunger for those elements not 
found within it. So only by the infinite in us do 
we have such longings, and become aware that 
we are more than finite. 


207 


HOW TO BE RICH 


As nature does not deceive the instinct of 
the fish for the water, or of the bird for the 
air, or of the body for food, so we may be 
certain it will not deceive the higher faculties 
in their instinct for life. Other creatures soon 
reach perfection here—the highest things of 
which they are capable—while man but begins 
to grow and learn and find out how much there 
is before him. If he ever rises to his full height 
it must be elsewhere in other apartments of the 
many mansions. We may be sure that nature 
is not left dead at the top. 

Matter so far as we can tell is indestruct¬ 
ible. This is a principle of science. The form 
of matter can be changed, but no atom de¬ 
stroyed. If death, therefore, so far as science 
can trace, can not destroy a single atom of our 
body, how shall it destroy the higher partner, 
the spirit? If such forces as heat, light, and 
electricity can not be destroyed, but only 
changed, how can that larger force that guides 
and controls these after such a wonderful 
fashion be destroyed? 

208 


THE ULTIMATE RESULT 


As I study into the secrets and mysteries of 
the world, I am able to trace laws—that is, I 
can see how the Mind back of all these things 
has been and is working. The fact that I can 
so think His thoughts after Him demonstrates 
that a Mind like mine, only immeasurably 
greater, stands back of these things, and that I 
am created in His image. Because of these 
and other kindred facts, I can declare with all 
confidence, and with profound joy: 

“Therefore to whom turn I but to Thee, the ineffable Name ? 

Builder and Maker, Thou, of houses not made with hands. 

What, have fear of change from Thee who art ever the same ? 

Doubt that Thy power can fill the heart that Thy power 
expands ? 

There shall never be one lost good. What was shall live as 
before ; 

The evil is null, is naught, is silence implying sound ; 

What was good shall be good, with for evil, so much good 
more ; 

On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven a perfect round. 

All we have willed or hoped or dreamed of good shall exist; 

Not its semblance, but itself; no beauty, nor good, nor power 

Whose voice has gone forth, but each survives for the melodist 

When eternity affirms the conception of an hour. 

The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too hard, 

The passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky, 

Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard ; 

Enough that He heard it once : we shall hear it by and by." 

209 


HOW TO BE RICH 


That Eternal “Energy from which all 
things proceed,” which is a postulate of all 
science; that accurate, logical, amazingly intel¬ 
ligent Energy, who is none other than our 
God, who called into being, and who guides 
and upholds all worlds, will bring to per¬ 
fection that which we commit to Him. Our 
consent and co-operation is all that is needed, 
and He will provide for us as He does for the 
lesser creatures which He has made. 

An article that appeared recently in an 
English magazine gives us a new and richer 
conception of God’s care for His creatures. 
We wonder sometimes where the little feath¬ 
ered creatures go during the large part of the 
year when they are absent from us. All are 
not guided to the same summer or winter home, 
but this writer tells us that “The Tundra, a 
vast stretch of treeless swamp, millions of 
acres in extent, in Northern Europe and Asia 
within the Arctic circle, drains the old world of 
half its bird population. Life beats strongly 
under its six months of almost perpetual sun- 


210 


THE ULTIMATE RESULT 


shine. Here buttercups, dandelions, forget-me- 
nots, and other flowers abound; no English 
meadow outvying these Arctic pastures in 
masses of purple, blue, and gold. All around 
this glorious domain lie millions of acres cov¬ 
ered with beds of abundant food, cranberries 
and other berries of the same genus in forty 
varieties. The crop is not ripe until the mid¬ 
dle or end of the Arctic summer, and if the 
birds had to wait until it was ripe, they might 
have to starve, arriving as they do on the very 
day of the melting of the snow. But the im¬ 
mense crop of ripe fruit of the previous season, 
ungathered by the birds, is quickly covered up 
by the snow, and kept pure and fresh, like 
crystallized fruit, until the melting of the snow 
again, when it is ready for them as soon as 
they arrive.” 

God thus provides bountifully, and in most 
unexpected and to us unthought of ways, for 
these little creatures of earth, and guides them 
in their flight. Shall He not much more give 
His blessing to those whom He has created 


211 


HOW TO BE RICH 


in His own image? He, who feeds the birds 
and clothes the flowers in a more than royal 
beauty, will provide for His children here; 
and, better than all, that Wisdom and Love 
that has provided an earthly paradise beyond 
the frozen barriers of the north for His earthly 
creatures, has also provided an eternal para¬ 
dise for His immortal children. And as He 
guides the birds in their perilous flight with un¬ 
erring vision, so He will guide us safely to our 
haven. 

With what exceeding beauty comes to 
mind in this connection the words of Bryant, 
“To a Waterfowl,” as he sees its form against 
the evening sky: 

“Whither, midst falling dew, 

While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, 

Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue 
Thy solitary way? 

“ There is a power whose care 
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast— 

The desert and illimitable air— 

Lone wandering, but not lost. 

“ He who, from zone to zone, 

Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, 

In the long way that I must tread alone, 

Will guide my steps aright.” 

212 


THE ULTIMATE RESULT 


Brief has been our life at the longest as 
we look to the past, but great beyond concep¬ 
tion is it as we gaze into the future. A thought 
given some years ago at a college revival by 
Dr. W. A. Spencer has provided for me a 
ladder by which I have been able to climb up a 
few rounds and peer a little farther into the 
wealth of years and opportunities that are be¬ 
fore me. Suppose that we could send an 
angel to gather the leaves from all the forests 
of the earth in springtime, and let him count 
them out one every hundred years until the 
last one has been numbered. In like manner 
let him pluck and count all the blades of grass 
on all the pastures and meadows and grassy 
plains in all the world. Then set him to count¬ 
ing the grains of sand, which make up the 
earth on which we tread. Then if he is not 
tired, let him measure out the waters of all the 
brooks, rivers, lakes, and oceans of the world, 
counting them out, drop by drop, one every 
thousand years, and after that, in like manner, 
the stars of heaven. After he has numbered all 


213 


HOW TO BE RICH 


and come back from the limits of God’s illimit¬ 
able universe, and after you and I have lived 
yet as many millenniums beyond that as there 
are blades of grass and leaves in field and 
forest, grains of sand in the earth, drops of 
water in the oceans, and stars in heaven, still 
we will be but in the dawning hours of the 
great eternal day; still it can be said of us: 
“They that be wise shall shine as the bright¬ 
ness of the firmanent, and they that turn many 
to righteousness as the stars For ever and 
ever.” 

In view of the fact that such is life in its 
ultimate reality, and that only is true wealth 
which “makes life and the vast forever one 
grand, sweet song,” well may the words of 
the poet be ours: 


** It matters little where I was bom, 

Or if my parents were rich or poor ; 

Whether they shrunk at the cold world’s scorn, 
Or walked in the pride of wealth secure. 

But whether I live an honest man 

And hold my integrity firm in my clutch, 

I tell you brother, as plain as I can, 

That matters much. 

214 


THE ULTIMATE RESULT 

“ It matters little where be my grave— 

If on the land or in the sea. 

By purling brook or ’neath stormy wave, 

It matters little or naught to me ; 

But whether the angel of life comes down, 
And marks my brow with his loving touch, 
As one that shall wear the victor’s crown, 
That matters much.” 


215 




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